Looking at today’s US newspaper front pages, one could be forgiven for thinking it’s 1992. The morning after Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to be nominated by a major political party, it was her husband, former president Bill Clinton, whose image graced the front pages of several major newspapers.
The Chicago Tribune delivered the most obvious howler, positioning a thankful-looking Bill Clinton beneath the headline “Clinton claims nomination.”
The Washington Post doubled down on maleness, featuring photos of both Bill Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders.
The Houston Chronicle proclaimed that “Clinton had made history,” but the picture of a smiling Bill beneath the headline made it look like it was a reference to him running to be the country’s first First Husband.
The Sacramento Bee, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Seattle Times, among others, all featured Bill instead of Hillary:
To be fair to the papers, Hillary Clinton wasn’t actually in the building during the nomination proceedings—she offered some remarks via satellite at the end of the evening.
And Bill Clinton was the headlining speaker, giving a passionate, personal speech about his wife—the “real” Hillary Clinton, he said, not the one portrayed in the media.
But some papers found a way around that logistical issue to feature the right Clinton on their front pages. The Boston Globe chose a photo of Hillary on a screen at the convention hall, alongside a shot of her husband. The Los Angeles Spanish-language paper La Opinion featured Hillary prominently, with a photo that wasn’t from the convention:
The Wall Street Journal apparently changed its mind overnight, switching from a photo of Bill to one of Hillary, and then changing the cover again, to a photo of Sanders.
We can only imagine what her self-appointed online anger translator might have to say about it.