Residents of one Pennsylvania city are embarrassed by their racist neighbors -- and wonder why reporters don't interview voters in richer towns nearby that more strongly backed President Donald Trump.
A Politico Magazine reporter profiled Trump voters in Johnstown who say they back the president, despite his failures, because he had attacked "N*ggers For Life" football players who protested police brutality.
The profile was actually a follow-up to previous reporting, and journalists frequently visit the western Pennsylvania city to take the temperature of Trump supporters -- but their progressive neighbors wish they'd go elsewhere, reported the Pittsburgh City Paper.
Johnstown fits into the media narrative about Trump supporters in Rust Belt towns, but Democrat Hillary Clinton actually eked out a narrow, 1 percent win there.
Cambria County, where Johnstown is the largest city, backed the Republican on the strength of his support in nine well-to-do suburbs north of Pittsburgh.
“When you look at our wealthier suburbs, they overwhelmingly went for Trump -- and they are making Trump," said Mary Lou Davis, of the progressive group Indivisible Johnstown.
Davis told the newspaper she's frustrated by the media portrayal of her town as a depressingly bleak haven for racists.
“There is such a media slant, and I am getting tired that Johnstown is getting portrayed that way,” Davis said, noting the city just elected two black, Democratic city council members.
“We have a symphony, we have an art community, we host a national triple-A baseball tournament every year,” she told the paper. “They painted with such a broad brush. The Politico piece just made us very very angry.”
