The Washington Post on Friday buried the announcement by Douglas Wilder, a
popular Democratic ex-governor of Virginia, to not endorse his party's current
nominee for that office, Creigh Deeds. The Post placed the story, with the bland
headline, "Wilder Declines to Endorse Anyone for Governor," below the fold in
the Metro
section [1].
In contrast, the Washington Times highlighted this story on the front
page [2], with the announcement: "Wilder to Deeds: That's Not 'Leadership.'"
Over the last month, the Post has engaged in an aggressive
campaign [3] to play up a 20-year-old thesis by Republican candidate Bob
McDonnell as supposedly anti-woman, offering story after story.
At the same time, the paper has repeatedly downplayed negative articles about
Mr. Deeds. For instance, The Post minimized the endorsement of McDonnell by the
powerful Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, a prominent organization in
vote-rich Northern Virginia. On Thursday, the Post hid that story on B4 of the
Metro page.
As Mark
Krikorian [4] and Kathryn
Jean Lopez [5] of National Review Online pointed out, the Post story on Wilder's
non-endorsement contained this assertion: "But President Obama's repeated
attempts to secure his support for Deeds gave Thursday's announcement national
significance." [Emphasis added.] Staff writer Sandhya Somashekhar continued:
The decision is a blow not only to Deeds, who has struggled to attract support from some leaders in the black community, but potentially for Obama, who is facing the first electoral test of his presidency in the race between Deeds and Republican Robert F. McDonnell.
If this is a "blow" to Obama and Deeds, if it contains "national
significance," why is it on B1 of the Metro section and not the front page?
What's there in its place? As the NRO's Krikorian mentioned, a piece on ankle
bracelets that can detect
sweat [6]. Is it any wonder that the Post continues to lose
money [7]?
-Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.