Spectator Editor’s Eyebrow-Raising Harris Endorsement Backfires
On October 17th the Spectator’s new editor Michael Gove publicly backed Kamala Harris on a BBC podcast. It caused a bit of a splash…
During an age in which the news outlet endorsement is dying out this struck media sources as a questionable choice – especially as the Spectator has been putting lots of hard-fought effort into its US expansion since 2019. All while Gove refused to back Badenoch on the record because “the Spectator doesn’t back candidates, it backs causes”…
Expansion into a market like the US’ as a right-leaning British magazine is difficult enough. US Editor Freddy Gray has written a piece today describing Trump as an “American titan,” eloquently setting out the President-elect’s appeal:
“But the Donald was only ever down, not out. ‘Trump fatigue’, as people called it, turned out to be a mirage and the Trump of 2024 is jubilant, albeit exhausted, having accomplished his extraordinary re-election mission. ‘I’ll never be doing a rally again, can you believe it,’ he said in his victory speech, sounding truly sad. But, he added, ‘success is going to bring us together’. Whatever else you think of him, it would be hard not to admit that Trump has grit. He has survived eight years of the most brutal political warfare – two impeachments, two assassination attempts, four criminal indictments, endless media ridicule and opprobrium – and emerged victorious again. He has won back the presidency.“
Media sources say Gove’s intervention is “embarrassing” seeing as Trump has just scored so well with Americans on his way back to the White House. His supporters make up the majority of the American voting public. Having the editor publicly oppose him as “evil” may not endear the magazine to those potential readers…
