Virginia

WashPost's Pershing Pushes Biased Narrative on 2013 Va. Gov's Race: 'Conservative' Cuccinelli vs. 'Businessman' Democrat
By Ken Shepherd | December 6, 2012 | 12:46 PM EST

As the 2013 Virginia governor's race is already underway, the Washington Post is determined to set the narrative early on for its readers, and it goes a little something like this: Republican Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli is a hard-right conservative who's too extreme for the Old Dominion, especially in contrast to job-creating businessman Terry McAuliffe. McAuliffe, you may recall, served as Democratic National Committee chairman from 2001 to 2005. [Read related posts here and here]

In the December 6 paper, Post staff writer Ben Pershing continued the narrative with his treatment of liberal former congressman Tom Perriello's announcement the day prior that he would not run for governor and that he backs McAuliffe, giving the former DNC chief a virtual lock on the nomination next June. The race is now between "Cuccinelli, a conservative who is loved by his party base, and McAuliffe," a "businessman" who "previously ran the Democratic National Committee," Pershing noted.  The term "liberal" was used twice in Pershing's 17-paragraph story, in relation to Perriello. There was no exploration of the question of McAuliffe's ideological leanings:

Time's Picture of 2013 Va. Gov's Race: 'Dyed-in-the-Wool Tea Partyer' vs. 'Establishment Favorite' Dem
By Ken Shepherd | December 4, 2012 | 3:58 PM EST

The 2013 gubernatorial races may be in many ways a prelude of the 2014 congressional midterms. That certainly was the case in 1993 and 2009. So it's no surprise that the liberal media are doing their best to start writing the narrative about presumptive Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Ken Cuccinelli, who presently serves as the commonwealth's attorney general.

In a December 4 Swampland blog post, Time's Alex Altman exemplified the boilerplate comparison we're already seeing in other outlets like the Washington Post: Republican Ken Cuccinelli is a "controversial by design," staunch Tea Party conservative who could be a risky bet for the governor's mansion while his likely Democratic sparring partner, Terry McAuliffe is an ideologically nondescript inside-the-Beltway mover and shaker (emphasis mine):

CBS Uniquely Notes Racial Tinge of Biden's 'Chains' Gaffe
By Brad Wilmouth | August 15, 2012 | 1:35 AM EDT

As the broadcast network evening newscasts on Tuesday gave attention to Vice-President Joseph Biden asserting that Mitt Romney, by "unchaining" Wall Street would effectively "put y'all back in chains," only CBS's Bob Schieffer informed viewers that about half the audience in Danville, Virginia, was African-American, thus suggesting the Vice-President was making an embarrassing pander to black audience members who likely have ancestors who used to be "in chains."

On the CBS Evening News, as he set up a soundbite of Biden, substitute host Schieffer related:

CNN's Soledad O'Brien Calls Out Biden's 'Racially Coded' 'Chains' Gaffe
By Brad Wilmouth | August 15, 2012 | 1:29 AM EDT

On Tuesday's Anderson Cooper 360, substitute host Soledad O'Brien made the argument that Vice-President Joseph Biden's "chains" gaffe in Danville, Virginia, was "racially coded language," as she rejected the Obama campaign's spin that the comment was not meant to be a reference to the enslavement of African-Americans in the past.

After relating the Obama campaign's explanation, she shot it down:

MRCTV Films at Chick-fil-A: Crowds In Favor of Free Speech, Against Media 'Hate' Labels
By Tim Graham | August 2, 2012 | 4:58 PM EDT

Yesterday’s “Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day” was huge across the country. MRCTV’s Dan Joseph and crew  traveled to several Chick-fil-A locations around the DC area to interview some of the many Americans who came to support traditional marriage and freedom of speech.

“It’s a shame we can’t say what we think these days,” protested one woman. Another added, “We’re protesting, you know,  the media and everybody trying to say it’s hate. I don’t hate anybody.” Joseph even found a huge line in Springfield, Virginia at 2 pm – hardly the lunch rush:

WashPost Plays Up a Heil-Hitler Reference In Story on Virginia Catholic Teachers
By Tim Graham | July 12, 2012 | 2:42 PM EDT

Now here’s a stretch: what began on the front page of Thursday’s Washington Post as a story on the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia asking volunteer religion teachers to sign a fidelity oath to church teachings concluded with an image of German Catholic bishops doing a Heil Hitler salute.

This loaded Nazi reference – in a church now led by someone conscripted into Hitler’s army – came from a Rev. Ronald Nuzzi at Notre Dame, a college which quite publicly displayed its lack of orthodoxy by honoring President HHS Mandate Obama in 2009:

WashPost: New Va. Laws Make State 'Less Hospitable' But New Md. Tax Hikes Merely 'Noticeable'
By Ken Shepherd | July 1, 2012 | 11:41 PM EDT

July 1 is traditionally the day when many new state laws take effect, and every year on or about that date, the Washington Post makes sure to inform its readers of some new laws hitting the books in Maryland and Virginia. This year, Marylanders are seeing tax increases, with residents of Montgomery County -- a significant portion of the Post's subscriber base -- disproportionately affected.

Yet in reporting on "A slew of new laws for Md., Va.," Post staffers Laura Vozzella and John Wagner buried infomation about the Old Line State's tax hikes. The first mention came in paragraph 4 out of the article's 34 paragraphs. What's more, Vozzella and Wagner dealt with Virginia's new laws first, meaning that more in-depth explanation of Maryland's tax increases only came 24 paragraphs into the article.

NYT's Shear Digs Up Racism Accusations: 'Much More' Than 'Macaca' Doomed GOP Sen. George Allen
By Clay Waters | June 15, 2012 | 8:11 AM EDT

New York Times reporter Michael Shear filed a "Political Memo" Thursday on the return of former Virginia Sen. George Allen, who lost in 2006 after the media and the Washington Post in particular harped on a daily basis after Allen referred to opponent's opposition research person as "macaca." Shear felt the need to kneecap Allen out of the starting gate by injecting all the old controversies and rumors of racism into the current news cycle for "A Comeback in Virginia, Shadowed by a Stumble."

WashPost Lets Tim Kaine Claim Bush Years Had 'Massive Deficits' -- Compared to Obama's?
By Tim Graham | June 13, 2012 | 11:05 PM EDT

Washington Post reporter Ben Pershing dropped a very bizarre sentence into his Virginia election roundup on the front page of Wednesday's Metro section. Sen. George Allen won the right to attempt and regain his seat against former Gov. Tim Kaine, and Kaine "quickly made clear how he would run against Allen in their head-to-head matchup." I simply could not believe the audacity of what followed.

“Voters already had the chance to experience George Allen’s vision during his last term in the Senate, which turned record surpluses into massive deficits, added trillions to our debt, and put opportunity for a select few ahead of opportunity for all our businesses and families,” Kaine said in a statement Tuesday night. “George Allen’s approach helped create our economic mess; Virginians can’t afford six more years.”

WashPost Seeks to Spin Positive Poll Numbers As Negative for Potential GOP Veep Nominee Gov. Bob McDonnell
By Ken Shepherd | May 7, 2012 | 11:40 AM EDT

Fifty-six percent of Virginians approve of Republican Bob McDonnell's job as governor and 49 percent believe the Old Dominion is on the right track. That contrasts with a 47 percent average approval rating for President Obama and an average of 32.7 percent of Americans who believe the country is on the "right track."

Yet the Washington Post chose to spin the polling numbers as a negative, noticing a downward trend from previous numbers and attributing the shift to "a contentious legislative session that drew large protests and national ridicule to the state Capitol."

Now the WashPost Tells Us: Virginia Voter ID Law 'Not As Severe' As South Carolina, Texas
By Ken Shepherd | March 16, 2012 | 12:48 PM EDT

When the Virginia General Assembly was debating a new voter ID law, the Washington Post did its level best to paint the measure as a vote suppressing measure that was akin to "Jim Crow" laws. The Post's editorial board also weighed in by charging that making the voter ID laws stricter was evidence of "institutional racism" in state government.

But now that the debate is over and the bill is likely to be signed by Gov. Bob McDonnell (R), the Post's Richmond correspondents Laura Vozzella and Anita Kumar today admitted that, well, the legislation is fairly lax compared with stricter legislation that absolutely requires photo IDs in other states:

Bias by Labeling: WashPost's Kumar Notes 'Women's PAC to Take On 'Antiabortion Lawmakers'
By Ken Shepherd | February 29, 2012 | 11:32 AM EST

Much of the media's liberal bias is furthered by presenting political controversies such that they pit a non-ideological group versus an ideological one, most often of course the ideological group being conservative in nature.

Take the Washington Post's Virginia legislature correspondent Anita Kumar, who informed readers in an 11-paragraph item on page B2 of today's paper that a "Women's PAC [will] take on antiabortion lawmakers" (emphasis mine):