@Remittancegirl @spacehobo I think they were more subtle about it pre-2000?
And this goes for the UK too. I used to read the Daily Telegraph in the 1980s. Stodgy and conservative but the news coverage was balanced and didn't editorialize, and the editorials were Burkean in tone rather than frothing-at-the-mouth xenophobia. (The 1980s Telegraph was about where The Guardian is today on most issues. Exception: homophobia, which was everywhere back then.)