The
Washington Post [1] on Thursday continued its quest to defeat Virginia's
Republican gubernatorial candidate, bizarrely citing a "non-partisan" group
that, in reality, has endorsed Bob McDonnell's Democratic opponent. The article
by Anita Kumar contained this loaded headline: "McDonnell critics question
ideology: Some saw agenda in legal opinions."
Kumar quoted Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, a lobbyist for "Equality Virginia, a
nonpartisan gay rights group." Yet, the front page of Equality Virginia's [2] website
features a press release entitled, "Equality Virginia PAC Endorses Deeds for
Governor." The organization's website makes a distinction between its political action
committee [3] (EVPAC) and its "non-partisan" activities. However, Kumar made no
such clarification. How can a group be non-partisan and endorse the Democratic
nominee?
Additionally, Kumar referenced Gastanaga as a lobbyist who opposed Virginia's
gay marriage ban and McDonnell's role in supporting it as attorney general.
Kumar quoted Gastanaga: "It would be hard for any reasonable person to believe
that McDonnell would have issued an opinion that did not help those who wanted
the amendment to pass." The Washington Post journalist failed to explain to her
readers that Gastanaga has donated a combined $1520 to the Democratic Party of
Virginia and the DNC (in 1993,
1996 [4] and 2007 [5]).
Kumar's article highlighted Democrats who hit the Republican for letting his
conservative ideology influence decisions as attorney general. Kumar chided,
"His critics frequently accused him of writing opinions or intervening in court
cases as a way to advance his conservative agenda."
She spun:
McDonnell said that only the General Assembly, not the governor, had the right to protect a category of people. But Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and others wondered whether the new attorney general had put ideology above the law.
In his three years as attorney general, McDonnell, the GOP nominee for governor, could not escape questions about the legal advice he provided, no matter how he came down on an issue.
Virginia's current Democratic Governor Tim Kaine qualifies as a critic? He's
also the head of the Democratic National Committee (a fact that Kumar mentioned
towards the end of the article). Another negative critique in the piece came
from a liberal Democratic state delegate:
"A smart lawyer can come up with a legal justification for just about anything," said state Del. David L. Englin (D-Alexandria), who often opposed McDonnell. "There is no doubt he used the office to advance his agenda."
In other words, the Post has discovered that Democrats oppose Republicans?
Kumar briefly quoted from the head of the NRA and, at the end of the article,
a Republican delegate, but the piece mostly touted left-wing attacks.
The Washington
Post [6] has aggressively pursued McDonnell and featured a large number
of stories sympathetic to Democrat Creigh Deeds. Another GOP target has been
Attorney General candidate Ken Cuccinelli, whom the Post has previously
described as " [7] [7]bizarre [7] [8]."
In an article appearing in the same Metro section as the McDonnell piece,
staff writer Amy
Gardner [9] filed a piece that included this headline on
WashingtonPost.com: "Shannon ratchets up efforts to paint Cuccinelli as
extremist." (Steve Shannon is the Democratic nominee.)
Gardner played up Cuccinelli's conservatism and at the same time accepted
Shannon's contention that he's a moderate:
Cuccinelli - an ardent foe of abortion and an advocate of gun rights, private property rights, and strict interpretation of the state and federal constitutions - describes himself as one of the most conservative state senators representing one of the most liberal regions of the state. Shannon calls himself a moderate, business-friendly and pragmatic leader who would keep ideology out of the attorney general's office.
If the Post is wondering why its circulation keeps falling, perhaps the paper
should consider limiting the campaigning for Democrats to the editorial section.
-Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research
Center.