Is the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette a conservative newspaper? (Philadelphia, York: fit in, houses)

[Tiger Beer]

I am VERY interested in Pittsburgh as a potential city to live. I'm essentially an Irish-American Catholic person who grew up north of Detroit, but lived many many places since then. I still prefer the Democratic Party and I do support Barack Obama. I'm a fiscal conservative as well, but stronger supporter of Democrats. Pittsburgh having a strong kind of Catholic immigrant origin, much like Detroit and other Midwest cities interests me. I'm not too fond of evangelical Baptists and republic religous right thinking of the Deep South.

Anyways, I was looking online at Post-Gazette.com, and the main articles are about someone in capital being rejected by prayer in a House session, another story about a guy's faith in God brought back his barn, and yet another story about a pro-gun guy who brought his gun to a Obama rally to hand out pro-gun flyers - but was acquitted, and the newspaper seems to think the constitution was upheld because he brought his gun to Obama's rally. That is all on the front page.

So, I'm curious if the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is a conservative religious right-wing newspaper, and seemingly more in line with evangical, baptist, deep South thinking and such...

I'm also trying to figure out the people of Pittsburgh. They seem to vote solid Democrat, so I'd think they'd support our President Obama, and being Catholic, probably be a little less evangelical in mixing religion left and right with politics...but based on the newspaper, I am now wondering. I guess I'm also wondering if the anti-Obama tea parties were popular in Pittsburgh or not, or if the newspaper in general was strongly supportive of that type of thinking as well.

I'm also hoping this doesn't get moved to general politics, and I hope we don't follow a political path in this thread. Hopefully we can center more specifically on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and if its a conservative newspaper or not, etc. I think I can get a clearer picture of Pittsburgh and if I'd be comfortable living there from this as well.

Hope all is well in Pittsburgh! I love the looks of your city!

[groar]

the post-gazette is not all that conservative. they always endorse democrats and if i recall correctly, they endorsed obama in the primary as well.

the conservative paper in pittsburgh is the tribune-review which is run by richard scaife, the guy who poured millions in trying to dig up dirt on the clintons in the 90s.

pittsburgh is very solidly democrat (the last republican mayor was in the 30s!), and within the city itself voted overhwhelmingly for obama. pgh democrats can be pretty old school union types, so not the most progressive ever in some areas, but there are lots of progressives here as well. i mean, it's a city! there was one of those tea parties here, but i seriously doubt the p-g endorsed it, and in my experience, the city is a lot more left wing than right wing.

the town i live in, wilkinsburg, which is a semi-autonomous suburb just outside the city, voted 95% for obama in both the primary and the election.

there's an expression that politically pennsylvania is philadelphia and pittsburgh with alabama in the middle. but pa has gone strongly blue the last couple of elections, so that should give you an idea of how solidly left-wing (er, or at least democratic) the two population centers are.

[JoeLeaphorn]

The Post Gazette is not a politically conservative newspaper although Pittsburgh is a socially conservative community. The conservative newspaper in the area is the Tribune Review. The local media are very competitive with respect to the notion of "home town" reporting and as faith (not just Christian) plays a strong role in many of the communities, here, there is frequent reporting of faith related issues. Religious leaders, here, are an important (though informal) part of the political community (but this is no different than in New York, Boston, Chicago, etc.).

The Post-Gazette bought out its former rival, the Pittsburgh Press and as a result, it seems a little confused about its identity. From the perspective of political reporting it seems to be a bit "progressive" but the editorial board behaves like a person with multiple personality disorder. Sort of like Joyce Kilmer's "The Tree" if you implemented every opinion that the editorial board ever had you'd have a more dysfunctional government than we already do.

Which brings me to the point that if you are looking for a vibrant political culture, skip Pittsburgh. There is one party rule, here, and the party has such tight control over who becomes candidates (and what is on the agenda), that there is very little new thinking.

As for the Tea Parties, remember that Pennsylvania's liberals are for anything politically progressive as long as it doesn't cost them more. It isn't only Republicans that don't want to see tax increases, especially in this economy. Nearly everyone here, Democrat and Republican, believes that state government is too big and that the legislature is corrupt (except, of course, the guy I voted for).

There is a notion, here, that youth is the answer to all of our problems (even if it means juvenile conduct and inexperience). This is strange only because the first and second renaissances in Pittsburgh were not an outcome of a young political administration but of cooperation between older politicians and older industrialists.

[toosie]

I agree with pretty much everything Groar and Joe said.

The PG supports democratic candidates but isn't especially liberal. The Trib supports republican candidates and is right-wingish.

Pittsburgh votes democrat - has a strong union history - has some sparks and pockets of diversity but basically is a sleepy, pro union, working class, fairly segregated (in attitude), catholic town with powerhouses in it's science, medicine, financial services, & education.

This is from a native, liberal pittsburgher who has lived in other cities and towns and returned here for a spell.

[bradjl2009]

You should like Pittsburgh, many people are Democrat here but are more of the blue collar ones that lean to the left fiscally and are more to the right with social issues. With the 2008 election, only one county in the Pittsburgh area went more Democratic; all the other counties stayed similar to 2004 or went more to the GOP. Some say it may be racism, but I think it is more that Obama doesn't represent what many people outside of Pittsburgh want in their government also. Obama got 75% of the city and 57% of Allegheny County, but McCain won all the other counties in the area.

Pittsburgh also has a large Catholic population (at least 50%+) from the immigration of Germans, Irish, Eastern Europeans, and Italians. The PG is liberal to moderate but can be on the right occasionally and does endorse a GOP candidate once in awhile. Judging from your story of growing up, you should like it here and find not too different of a fabric in some areas (minus the pens of course :P)

[Johnny C]

no

[BrianTH]

Politically, I think of the Post Gazette as Democratic but moderate/centrist, if that makes sense to you. Of course that reflects most non-Internet media outlets these days: you have Republican/conservative and Democratic/moderate outlets, but not a lot of Democratic/liberal outlets (again, except on the Internet).

[highway29south]

I am a conservative and I switched from the Post Gazette to the Trib Review because I could not tolerate the left leaning, biased views of the Post Gazette anymore. Just too liberal for me. Of course, like the previous posts have pointed out, Pittsburgh is a very democrat/liberal town in the sense that they will elect any democrat, no matter what (look up Governer Ed Rendell and his latest fiasco to get the drift of what I'm saying here). Change is not something that comes to Pittsburgh very easily!

[Little Mizz Pittsburgh]

The Post-Gazette is not conservative, and thank god its not, because I wouldn't even bother to even look on their website for the latest news and views.

[Love2Golf09]

The Post-Gazette is your typical far-left newspaper, and, just like the Philly Inquirer, it will back all Democrat candidates no matter how foolish or corrupt they may be. Check out their lovefest with Onorato, Rendell, Mayor Luke, etc. for examples. A dead rat could run for mayor in Pittsburgh and as long as it has a "D" next to its name the PG will back it.

On a separate note, did you notice how the FBI arrested over 40 democrats in New Jersey yesterday, including the mayor of Hoboken? Man, we could sure use that here. For once in my life I am actually jealous of Jersey. 70+ years of one party rule...and we actually question the problems we see everyday? We wonder why we are near bankrupt, yet spending $250k on trash cans?

As far as the tea parties go, I'm sure there were some in Pittsburgh, but I have no idea how big they were. I know washington and greensburg had their own, and I'm sure Cranberry and Butler had theirs too. You can't really judge a city's political views based on those things though. Some of the biggest tea parties happened in Washington DC and in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and both towns are far, far left.

Pittsburghers are a dying breed...the conservative democrat. They are probably more religious than most cities, but not overbearing, pro-gun, anti-abortion, and against gay marriage, but not insane about it. Politically, Pittsburgh is a pretty good reflection of the entire state. I'd guess that the city is probably around 75% Democrat, however the numbers often can be skewed one way or another since many Democrats run unopposed in the general election, so turnout can be very low. I believe Allegheny County is around 55%-60% Democrat. Most of the counties outside of Allegheny are still registered as Democrats, but now lean slightly republican. I believe every county in southwestern PA, outside of Allegheny, voted for McCain in 2008. As for Obama, he's not a popular guy, nor in Ed Rendell. Obama was not a popular guy in the primary. He got destroyed by hillary. In the city, you will now find mostly indifference towards him. Go into the suburbs and people will talk bad about him. Go into Westmoreland and Washington Counties and people will tell you where you can go. Go to Fayette County with an Obama sticker on your car and they will hunt you for sport.

If you're going to move to the city, you should be fine unless you're super crazy left and are used to a San Fran or Massachussetts type of lifestyle. That's not Pittsburgh. You're not going to see crazy people riding bikes naked protesting capitalism. You're not going to see tons of hippies or people walking around with gay pride t-shirts on, although who knows what freaks the G-20 summit will bring. But, if you're moderate to slightly left, then you will fit in fine.