Home 2019 Elections The Best and Worst Media Coverage of Virginia’s 2019 Elections

The Best and Worst Media Coverage of Virginia’s 2019 Elections

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In addition to our own coverage here at Blue Virginia (see Virginia’s Swung Blue, But It Hasn’t Trickled Down To the Countryside, “Jesus, it must be bad if even the rednecks are voting for Democrats!”, Canvassing Makes a Difference. My Experience This Election Cycle.; Political Winners and Losers: Virginia Elections 2019; The Aftermath of Virginia’s 2019 Elections: Tracing Virginia’s Movement from a Red to Blue State; Loudoun, Virginia, and Kentucky Give Trump the Finger; etc.), there’s obviously been a slew of media coverage of Virginia’s elections Tuesday night. See below for a sampling of it – and I’ll add more as I come across articles – sorted into three categories (Excellent/Good, Mixed and Bad). If you see other stories you think should be included here, please note that in the comments section. Thanks.

Excellent/Good

Mixed:

  • WaPo: On the day after, Republicans face a blue Virginia (OK for the most part, except… how do they get “2 million votes for Republican candidates on Tuesday?” Earlier in the article itself, they state that “More than 1.1 million voters supported Democratic House of Delegates candidates, while 985,000 chose Republicans.” And no, it is NOT correct to add the votes for House of Delegates and State Senate candidates together, because the vast majority of those overlap, so that would be double counting. Very sloppy.)
  • Vox: Virginia Democrats campaigned on their Green New Deal and fighting climate change. And won.  (I mean…to an extent that’s true, but the vast majority of what we got from Dems this campaign was about guns, health care, etc. Also, to the extent Dems talked about the climate crisis and clean energy, they didn’t particularly talk about the “Green New Deal,” as far as I heard.)
  • Virginia Mercury: Five things Northam says he will (and maybe won’t) do with a Democratic majority (Good overall, but glaring omission of climate/energy/enviro)
  • RTD: Editorial: A blue tsunami sweeps the General Assembly races (OK for the most part, but not really accurate about the “blue tsunami”; in reality, Dems did very well in the House of Delegates Tuesday night, but kinda fizzled in the State Senate, only picking up two seats and a bare, 21-19 majority. That’s not really a “tsunami,” which would have seen Dem gains in the State Senate into the 25-26 range. Also, it’s a bit hyperbolic to say that Dems have “almost absolute power over Virginia government,” unless one assumes that Dems are united on everything.)
  • Daily Progress: Opinion/Editorial: State, localities move more strongly left (The headline is silly and wrong – in fact, Virginia Democrats are in the majority, ergo the “center,” on issue after issue – but the editorial itself is basically fine.)

Bad:

  • WaPo: In Virginia, newly empowered Democrats test the blue depths (“Blue depths?” WTF? Also, what is this crap about “dangers” and “veins of deep red,” etc? And please stop with the “moderate” vs. “progressives” faux narrative. All in all, is this an editorial or an objective news article?)
  • RTD: Editorial: Welcome to the Blue Dominion  (Concern trolling, pretty much, by a Republican-slanted editorial board, which predictably warns Dems to be “careful of overreach.”)
  • Roanoke Times: Editorial: Virginia delivers a message — but Democrats should be careful how they read it (Haha, this is *exactly* the type of editorial you’d expect from the corporate media. Right, Democrats should be “careful” passing smart, popular measures that voters asked for.)
  • Winchester Star: Star Editorial I — Virginia (Mostly what you’d expect from a right-wing Republican editorial page…lamenting the fact that “Democrats lamentably have the numbers to assure a return on that investment. For at least two years, that is.” Sad!)
  • The Bull Elephant: Lamentations on our Blue Virginia (Including this simply as an example of the Tea Party Republicans’ reaction…in this case comparing Virginia Democrats’ win Tuesday night to “the destruction of the First Temple by the Babylonians” and imploring, “HASHEM, save us now.   Virginia has forsaken you!” And no, it’s apparently not parody. LOL)
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