There is a belief by a lot of people who live in this county and read this newspaper that the Daily Times is inherently biased in its political coverage.
We are members of the liberal elite, and take every opportunity to lift the Democratic Party and downgrade their GOP foes.
In short, they believe we stack the deck against them, that we blatantly favor the Dems and their liberal positions.
We gave them every reason to believe exactly that this morning.
Readers might have noticed something odd about our print coverage of the Donald Trump rally held at the Sun Center in Chester Township last night.
We featured Trump as he strolled onto the Sun Center stage before a packed house of 5,000 supporters. We used the headline, "He's Back," to signify this was his second foray into Delaware County in a little more than a week, underscoring just how important the Philly suburbs are in the presidential derby.
So far, so good.
But readers might have noticed something odd once they turned to our coverage of the event inside on Pages 4-5.
We had planned two stories, one covering Trump and his speech, and another on the inevitable protest by Dem supporters outside.
Unfortunately, only one of them got into the print edition.
Guess which one?
Because of a communication problem (imagine that, people in the communications industry failing to communicate), the story on Trump's speech did not run in print.
I wish I could give you a good reason why it did not. I can't. We simply fouled up.
It is posted on our website. You can read it here. It will run in print in tomorrow's edition.
I know that people are going to believe we actually planned it this way, that we deliberately decided to focus on the Democrats and the protesters outside while giving short shrift to Trump and the 5,000 supporters who showed up to hear what he had to say.
I've already talked to one longtime GOP official in the county who read me a text he received from a friend that indicated exactly that. He suggested it was classic Daily Times and their liberal bent, only taken to extremes.
I listened carefully to what he said. And I then I offered this explanation. There is none. We made a mistake. That falls on me.
This notion of our "bias" against Republicans is something I've dealt with in every election since I became editor of this newspaper 17 years ago. It's something I guard against zealously. Some days I feel like Sisyphus, from Greek mythology, pushing a boulder up a hill only to see it roll right back down to the bottom, leaving me to start all over again.
This morning I'm back at the bottom of the hill. Through no one's fault other than my own. I'll field the calls. I'll take the hit.
But I want people to know - for the millionth time - how hard I struggle to avoid exactly the appearance we gave to our readers today.
For that, those who see it as validation of their belief when it comes to the Daily Times our faults no doubt are enraged at what they are reading in print this morning.
I can't say I blame them.
I can, however, apologize, and strive to start pushing that rock back up the hill again.
I
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