Last October, a few weeks before the November 2021 Virginia gubernatorial election, the Washington Post’s front page not one, not two, but THREE front-page articles on the Virginia governor’s race, all of which – to use the technical term for it – SUCKED! How badly did they suck? Hell, in one of them, they even described Youngkin as a “6 foot 5 mystery date,” acting like he’d never stated his far-right positions on the issues, even though if they’d been paying literally ANY ATTENTION to the Virginia GOP’s nomination contest the previous spring (as Blue Virginia was – we posted on it many times!), they would have known this. But they apparently didn’t pay attention, or maybe they just forgot, or maybe…who the hell knows? Seriously, WTF??? These people get paid to be full-time journalists?!? Oh, and this is the same paper which also posts trash like this in their Virginia opinions section.
The bottom line is that the Washington Post’s Virginia political coverage (and also to endorsements, certainly during the many years when Lee Hockstader was writing them…with all the knowledge of someone for whom Virginia might as well have been a distant, foreign country he’d never visited) has been, and continues to be, a complete embarrassment to “journalism.” This morning, add another one to the list of WaPo articles on Youngkin that are a combo of whitewash, fawning, inaccurate and an example of how NOT to do political journalism. In this one, they push the line that Youngkin is “a friendly, can-do conservative,” an “inspirational winner” with a message of “parents, economy and faith,” plus a “new national status” whose “emphasis on parents and schools seemed to set a template for others to follow heading into this fall’s elections.” Are you vomiting yet? But wait, there’s more!
“In an interview, Ricketts acknowledged that part of Youngkin’s success lay in his ability to appeal to the Trump base of the party while offering a moderate image to those looking to move beyond the inflammatory ex-president.
…Youngkin took the stage with a burst of enthusiasm — and more than a little Reagan positivity…
…Youngkin flipped the script on the other speakers, showcasing a more optimistic narrative he’ll be touring across the country as he stumps for GOP candidates later this summer.”
The worst part of this article is that it simply presents Youngkin’s bullsh*t and flat-out lies without noting that they are…well, bullsh*t and flat-out lies. To the contary, the tone of the article indicates that the “journalist” writing the story completely buys Youngkin’s spin, and is in fact enthralled by Youngkin. To put it mildly, this is NOT what journalism is supposed to be about. Instead, what journalism SHOULD be doing is INFORMING readers of the FACTS, cutting through politicians’ self-serving/nauseating spin, and pointing out clearly when a politician (in this case, Youngkin) is flat-out lying. This WaPo article completely fails to do any of that, which makes it the WaPo’s latest disgrace to journalism…
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