Long-time Blue Virginia readers – or hell, short-time Blue Virginia readers, lol – probably couldn’t help but notice my, let’s just say, less-than-glowing views on the “mainstream” political media in this country. Why is that? Because, just a short list here, the “mainstream” political media is mostly comprised of faux “journalists” overwhelmingly concerned with maintaining their precious “access” to powerful politicians, and thus refuse to really press them, call them out on their lies/bullshit, etc. As if that’s not bad enough, the “mainstream,” political media also engages in relentless false equivalence, “both sides-ism,” “sanewashing” of Trump and other far-right extremists, non-substantive/”horse race” (“who’s up? who’s down?”) coverage, softball interviews with Republicans (e.g., any time Jake Tapper interviews a Republican – Donald Trump, Glenn Youngkin, whoever) and hagiography (e.g., this hot garbage NY Times interview with white nationalist, racist, anti-Semite, extremist, etc. Tucker Carlson) while bashing Democrats (e.g., Joe Biden) relentlessly for things that Trump does ten times worse and a million times more frequently – but they give Trump a pass, clean up his language, etc.
Anyway…with that off my chest, on to the point of this post First off, hat tip to Chris Graham of the Augusta Free Press for catching this and highlighting it:
Now, first off, shame on the interviewer, for not pushing back on Cline here about the “chop the district” to “parcel out” to Northern Virginia.
The new Sixth District doesn’t go any farther north than the City of Harrisonburg, which, at last check, isn’t in what we think of as Northern Virginia.
Interviewers: your job isn’t to let politicians just say whatever they want to say.
If Ben Cline tries to tell us that Harrisonburg is in Northern Virginia, it’s your job to say, Excuse me, Mr. Congressman.
Instead, the WDBJ presenter – I’ll drop the pretense here that this was anything other than the TV station just running straight-up MAGA propaganda – let Cline double down.
So see below for video of this “interview,” or whatever this hot garbage is, with far-right-extremist, worse-than-worthless Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA06). In short, this is a quick recap of this perfect example of how NEVER EVER EVER to conduct an interview if you’re a political journalist (note: my comments are in bold/green/parentheses after each bullet point).
- “One possible new district drawing a lot of attention is the sixth. It could be redrawn to include many colleges – Radford, Virginia Tech, UVA, JMU, along with the cities of Roanoke and Salem.” (So WDBJ7 – a CBS affiliate whose chairman, Hilton Howell Jr., is a Republican donor, btw – clearly knows what the new district looks like, only making MORE egregious their failure to correct Cline’s outright lies a few seconds later in this piece...)
- “It’s clear that the Democrats realized that they couldn’t beat me at the ballot box, so they wanted to chop the district that I currently represent up and parcel it out to so many Northern Virginia seats and try and beat me through an unconstitutional gerrymander.” (So, as Chris Graham astutely and correctly points out, the proposed new VA06 – see map, courtesy of State Navigate, below – is not, repeat NOT – in Northern Virginia at all, let alone in “so many Northern Virginia seats [sic]” as Cline falsely claims. In fact, as you can see, the proposed new VA06 includes parts or all of Albemarle County, Harrisonburg, Fluvanna County, Nelson County, Amherst County, Bedford County, Botetourt County, Roanoke County, Montgomery County, Buckingham County, Charlottesville, Lynchburg, Roanoke City, Salem, Staunton, Waynesboro…none of which are in Northern Virginia – by any definition of Northern Virginia. And yet, does WDBJ7 ever correct this for viewers? Nope, of course not. Because, as Chris Graham points out, although the job of interviews is NOT supposed to be “to let politicians just say whatever they want to say,” that’s exactly what WDBJ7 does in this interview – or whatever the hell it is – with pathological liar Ben Cline. Disgusting.)
- Making matters even worse, WDBJ7 then proceeds to inform viewers of what Cline believes – “Cline believes the redistricting process ignored Virginia’s constitution and the question on the ballot was meant to confuse voters. He says the wording on the ballot was misleading.” (So this is a classic case of what NEVER EVER to do if you’re a political journalist; namely, do NOT just uncritically amplify, regurgitate, etc. flat-out lies, or at best highly questionable opinions – by a far-right politician and pathological liar, in this case. Instead, INFORM VIEWERS what the FACTS are, and PUSH BACK against the politician you’re interviewing when that politician mistates the facts, flat-out lies, etc. Literally, THAT IS YOUR JOB as journalists, not to just provide a platform for them to spew out lies. But yeah, I know, gotta maintain that precious “access,” also gotta never offend right-wing viewers, because you know, that whole “withouth fear or favor” thing journalists love to pat themselves on the backs about.)
- WDBJ7 then (mis)informs us that “redistricting is happening in both blue and red states across the country, and more is likely on the way after the U.S. Supreme Court scaled back the Voting Rights Act earlier this this week.” (This is a CLASSIC example of false equivalence, “both sides-ism,” etc. – and misinforming viewers as to what’s really going on. In fact, of course, this ENTIRE SITUATION is the result of Trump and his fellow Republicans – including on the Supreme Court – trying to destroy our democracy, rig the US House maps in their favor, and disenfranchise Black voters in particular. Instead, what we get from WDBJ7 is none of that information, only whitewashed/sanitized language about the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act, as “scaled back the Voting Rights Act.” Again, utterly pathetic drivel by WDBJ7.)
- Then, we get a moronic, softball “question” to Cline, “Do you feel confident that you guys will keep the house in November?” To which, shockingly, Cline responds, “I do, I think that we’re delivering on a number of matters.” Then WDJB7 further pushed Cline’s propaganda, intoning, “Cline noted that Republicans in the House passed a separate budget reconciliation bill that will fund ICE and Border Patrol for the next three years.” (Again, utter shit “journalism”; both on the softball b.s. question, the lack of followup, and the uncritical amplification of Cline’s false narrative about what Republicans have been up to in the U.S. House – in fact, they could have had a funding bill weeks ago, but instead they stuck to their hard line for absolutely no good reason. But of course, WDBJ7 mentions none of that, because that would take effort? require them to do the bare minimum as journalists? risk their precious “access” to Cline? all of the above? Also note: if the Virginia Supreme Court rules – hopefully in the next few days – that the redistricting referendum YES vote is valid, and new district boundaries can proceed, then the fact is, Ben Cline will be *TOAST* politically speaking, and this is something that a real journalist would have mentioned.)
