The southern California newspaper vandalized for using the term “illegals” in its reporting is the only known paper in the Golden State backing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for president.
The Santa Barbara News-Press endorsed Trump shortly before California’s June 7 primary election. Trump was the only Republican remaining in the race at the time.
Politico’s Carla Marinucci pointed to the paper as Trump’s one California newspaper endorsement in a Monday morning briefing on the state this week.
The News-Press story that used the term “illegals” related to new California legislation allowing illegal aliens in the state to obtain driver licenses. The Democrat-dominated region saw the paper’s offices vandalized in January 2015, after the story ran. Red spray paint applied to the front entrance read, “The border is illegal, not the people who cross it.” At least two other locations were vandalized as well.
The News-Press defended its use of the word in a statement published by Fox News. The paper stated that for a decade, it has used the term to describe foreign nationals living in the United States illegally. The paper further stated that the term is one of several used by media outlets and the backlash has come from “some immigration groups.”
The San Francisco Chronicle, whose editorial board has itself endorsed Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton for president, seized on the Politico report with an attack on the Santa Barbara paper and no mention of the vandalism against it. The report attacked News-Press owner Wendy McCaw, stating, “the newspaper has mostly made headlines for owner Wendy McCaw’s many lawsuits.”
Even though the vandalism of the paper made national headlines, this was not mentioned in the Chronicle report. News of the incident made it to the Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, and BuzzFeed at the time.
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