While perusing this morning’s news, the conclusion I drew is that, apparently, all we’re going to get on the 2025 Virginia governor’s race from the media is: a) identity politics (did you know that two women are running? well, if you somehow didn’t know that, don’t worry, because they’re going to tell you over and over and over and over again!); b) “horse race” (who’s up? who’s down? how much money did they raise?). But good luck, for instance, finding out that Winsome Earle-Sears is a right wingnut, or really anything substantive about ANY of the candidates on the issues, in terms of their qualifications for the job, etc.
Just this morning, for instance, there were several articles along these lines, and it was hard to decide which was the least helpful/informative. But if I have to pick one, I’ve gotta go with this article by Bob Lewis in the Virginia Mercury, which literally concludes as follows:
“Now, a woman will get that chance. I take comfort knowing that there will be a Governor Spanberger or a Governor Earle-Sears.
Either way, her time has come.”
So…seriously, he takes “comfort” in the thought of having THIS PERSON as our next governor!
- “Sears claimed that after a woman becomes pregnant the baby is not her body, saying, “she’s got her own body” and “the blood running through the veins of the baby don’t belong to her, it’s not her blood.”
- Sears has tried to base her staunch anti-choice extremism on the widely debunked conspiracy theory that abortion clinics “sell baby parts.”
- Sears has supported extreme abortion bans — similar to the Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks.
- Sears is a longtime opponent of LGBTQ+ rights, previously running on her proud opposition to marriage equality.
- Sears campaigned with and celebrated the endorsement of E.W. Jackson, a staunch anti-LGBTQ+ bishop who has a long history of spewing hateful rhetoric against LGBTQ+ Americans.
- Sears has long supported stripping funding from public schools to funnel into unaccountable private and charter schools, leading the most recent legislative push to do so.”
And that’s just a very VERY short list of Sears’ lunacy and extremism. But you’ll never hear a word about any of that, apparently, in Virginia’s political media.
Another exampe: this article – also in the Virginia Mercury – is 100% “horse race,” with an absurd/false/over-the-top statement by Sears (“The threat of radical change that would turn our commonwealth in the wrong direction is real and demands we fight back directly and aggressively.”) presented uncritically/stenographically. Wonderful.
Oh, and if you read this article on WAMU’s website, you’ll learn that Sears “would be the first woman and first immigrant to be Virginia governor and the first Black woman governor in American history,” that she “touts endorsements from 11 state legislators and nearly 60 Virginia sheriffs,” and that “her campaign website does not list any policy priorities.” Other than that…nada. Super helpful, huh? Really gets into the candidates positions on the issues, what voters should be focused on, etc? Not!
Yet another example: this very short piece, by Michael Pope over at WVTF, which mostly features this quote about Winsome Sears:
“She is definitely dealing with the duality of her identity being both Black and being a woman,” says Jatia Wrighten at Virginia Commonwealth University. “She will deal with both sexism and racism, and so besides having to deal with her own party and maybe them not seeing her as a loyalist, she’s going to be dealing with not only her ideology, but also her identity.”
Again…ok, but where’s the substance about Sears’ bats***-crazy, extreme views on almost every topic? Nowhere to be found in that article, or really in ANY article in the Virginia political media this morning (that includes the ostensibly pro-Democratic “Virginia Dogwood” – check this article out, and notice the same pattern as described above).
Oh, and if you were thinking this was just the media failing to seriously cover the governor’s race, there’s also this article in the RTD about the Lt. Governor’s race, which has ZERO information on the Republican candidates’ positions on the issues (e.g., John Reid is hard right/MAGA all the way, but all you really gather from the Virginia “mainstream media” is that he was a “radio host,” the son of a delegate, previously worked for George Allen and Ronald Reagan, and “would be the first openly gay candidate elected to a statewide office in Virginia”)…
Anyway, the bottom line is that for whatever reasons, the Virginia political media – and the media in general – shy away from telling their readers clearly, or at all, how extreme Republican candidates are these days. They did it with Trump in 2016, Trump again in 2020, Youngkin in 2021, Trump again in 2024, and now they’re doing it in the Virginia 2025 elections. And, apparently, that’s all they’re ever going to do – it’s simply “how they roll,” as the saying goes. Unfortunately, by “rolling” in this way – “horse race,” “whitewashing,” “sanewashing,” “both sidesism”/false equivalence, etc. – they’re doing an enormous disservice to the public and to our democracy, while making a mockery of what journalism is supposed to actually be about. And apparently they DO NOT CARE.
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