Posted on 09/09/2009 3:18:56 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The Washington Post on Wednesday expanded its attack on Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, branching out beyond the Republican’s 1989 master’s thesis to a hit piece on the removal of a 2003 judge and whether or not it was because of homophobia on the part of the then-state delegate. The story centered around Verbena M. Askew, a Virginia judge who had been accused of sexually harassing a female colleague.
Post reporter Amy Gardner, who has written or co-written four of the Post’s 12 anti-McDonnell articles that have run over the last 11 days, stated that the 2003 removal of Askew "led to questions about whether the future Republican gubernatorial candidate thought gays were fit to serve on the bench." In the piece, Gardner left out any mention of the fact that two State House Democrats also voted to deny Askew reappointment. Gardner belatedly admitted this point in a blog on WashingtonPost.com:
The Republican Party of Virginia, Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob McDonnell and state Sen. Ken Stolle want you to know something about the controversial reappointment hearing in 2003 of Newport News Circuit Judge Verbena M. Askew: Two prominent Fairfax County Democrats, Janet Howell and now-Senate Majority Leader Dick Saslaw, also voted to deny Askew a second term.
In the posting, Gardner tried to spin a reason for leaving this salient point out of the story:
However, McDonnell's role in the episode -- and the focus of this morning's story -- stretched beyond the hearing itself when he spoke individually to a reporter about the relevance of homosexual behavior to qualifying to be a judge.
And while it’s true that the Post article contains some quotes corroborated by a Daily Press reporter (but disputed by McDonnell as to their authenticity) about homosexual conduct, wouldn’t the fact that some Democrats agreed with McDonnell be worth including in the story? Apparently not.
Jim Geraghty, in a posting on National Review Online, broke down McDonnell’s reason for opposing the reappointment of the Virginia judge:
McDonnell said at the time of the hearing, "Homosexuality is not an issue with regard to the qualifications of a judge... I imagine we have gay judges on the bench now. That’s not a material inquiry."
When voting against Askew’s reappointment, he gave four specific reasons for his no vote on Askew. They included:
1) Askew had given confidential documents relating to the settlement to a local media outlet, contrary to the applicable confidentially agreement.
2) An objective, anonymous survey of the Newport News Bar Association found 45 percent of respondents indicated her rating was unsatisfactory and 47 percent of respondents found her judicial demeanor unsatisfactory.
3) The settlement amount of $64,000 was far more than a typical "nuisance claim," and Collins had received positive performance reviews.
4) There was a credible and documented pattern of retaliation against Collins by Askew after Collins filed a formal written complaint against Askew in August of 1999. McDonnell deemed the conduct unacceptable for a Circuit Court judge towards an employee.
McDonnell also noted that only 7 months earlier the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates — a Republican — was removed from his leadership position after revelations of a sexual harassment claim and settlement became public, and concluded that a similar standard should be applied to judges.
The Post also included this untoward passage relating to Terry Scanlon, the aforementioned reporter who quoted McDonnell as saying that certain homosexual conduct raises "some questions about the qualifications to serve as a judge." Gardner wrote:
Terry Scanlon, the Daily Press reporter who interviewed McDonnell, and Ernie Gates, the newspaper's editor, both said last week that McDonnell never complained about the quotation's accuracy.
Scanlon, who now lives in Colorado and is no longer a reporter, also remembers asking McDonnell whether he had ever violated the crimes against nature statute himself -- a fair question, he thought, because McDonnell had raised the legal point. The statute, among other things, prohibits oral or anal sexual contact, regardless of the sex of the participants. McDonnell's response, Scanlon reported, was: "Not that I can recall." [Emphasis added]
Will the Post soon be turning its investigative focus on Creigh Deeds? Will the paper run stories about the Democratic candidate and his thoughts on oral and anal sex? Or is this just another Post smear job on a Republican?
—Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center.
12 Hit pieces in 11 days. The story is the Post not ole Macdonald
Related Article :
Weekly Standard Mocks WaPo Crusade Against Bob McDonnell
The Weekly Standard’s September 14 issue parodied the Washington Post for its biased, obsessive coverage of Virginia gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell, wryly featuring a mock headline that read: “Post Runs Another Story About Its McDonnell Story: Stories to run until ‘controversy’ takes on life of its own, sources say.” [Emphasis added]
The Washington Post has published 12 pieces in 11 days highlighting a 1989 Regent University thesis by the Republican about the traditional family structure. The spot-on Weekly Standard parody spoofed, “Three days after publishing a story in hopes of generating a controversy over a master’s thesis written 20 years ago by GOP gubernatorial hopeful Bob McDonnell, The Washington Post will publish another story today about the reaction to its original story, the Washington Post has learned.”
That parody is rather similar to actual Post coverage. On September 1, 2009, two days after first focusing on the story, the paper featured a front page story with this headline: “Governor’s Race Erupts Over McDonnell’s Past Views.” The eruption consisted, more or less, of the Deeds campaign pouncing on the campaign gift.
Reporters Amy Gardner, Rosalind S. Helderman and Anita Kumar breathlessly announced:
The Virginia governor’s race ignited Monday over Republican Robert F. McDonnell’s 20-year-old graduate thesis: Democrats assailed him in e-mail blasts and interviews for what he wrote about working women, homosexuals and “fornicators,” and McDonnell tried to explain his views to crucial moderate and female voters.
The Weekly Standard satire dryly observed:
One headline, for example, said the race “erupted” 48 hours after the first article appeared. The text of the article, by contrast, said the race “ignited.” Virginia voters were quick to point out that the race had done neither.
“Did the copy desk mix metaphors in describing something that wasn’t happening? Yes,” said one source close to the paper. “Is that a risk that a fearless newsgathering organization is willing to run if it’s going to take down a candidate that none of its employees would vote for? You bet it is.”
Read the entire Weekly Standard parody here :
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/920ixgco.asp
-PJ
Deeds is running ads about the “Failed Bush” meme while Kaine’s news this am in the morning rag was layoffs and cutoffs in the state gov while he flogs for the DNC.
We still don’t have a roads plan and if you drive Virginia highways and byways especially the corridor from Norfolk to DC, it’s standing room, and I do mean standing only.
McDonnell is running very comfortably ahead.
Hopefully, the WAPO will continue to shoot Deeds in the foot because this is backfiring.
PANIC at the Post!
Next the ComPost will have McDonnell analyzed by astrologers, body language “experts”, and professors of deconstructionism.
Here in NJ, no newspaper is complete without a photo of a smiling Jim Corzine hugging a child and an article inanely crediting the governor for some positive developmnent somewhere in which he had no part, meanwhile he has been a disaster as governor.
>>> Macaca! <<<
Oh well, they tried that one last week, using “McDonnell’s Macaca moment” in the headline of an op-ed.
Fail.
So was Allen against Webb until his macaca moment, which the WP then used for months using the same tactics they are now using against McDonnell. Hopefully, McDonnell will not go on an apology binge like Allen and remain on the defensive the rest of the campaign.
There is a lot at stake in the VA (and NJ) election this November. It will have a major impact on the Obama administration and its agenda. You can bet the Dems and Obama will be pumping in millions of dollars into these elections. This is going to be a close race in VA.
Have these articles had any impact on the polls?
Thanks for that link, a real hoot.
Nope.
What’s happening here is that the Virginia State Democrat Party, in coordination with the DNC, has hired a number of opposition researchers to review old newspapers and public records to try and dig up dirt on McDonnell. As they find “stuff” they are feeding it to the Washington Post for story material, which the Compost obligingly publishes.
I hope and pray, VA has better sense than to listen to these deranged fools.
So, if opinions expressed by Van Jones prior to taking a czar job don’t count, how, exactly does this count?
hh
Last year we had a Senate race with two former Governors, and the Washington Post ran virtually NO ARTICLES AT ALL about the entire race.
Of course, the Democrat was ahead by double-digits, not the Republican, so I would guess they just didn’t have a reason to attack the front-runner.
I’m sure the Post will run another opinion poll, to see how they are doing. That’s what they use polls for, to see whether they are having the desired effect.
Creigh Deeds in '99: "NO SPECIAL RIGHTS FOR GAYS"
I don't believe in discrimination, but I don't believe in special rights for anyone. I have never voted to allow gay partners to receive medical insurance -- or any other benefit -- from the state. It's sad that Mr. Collins has to resort to bigotry and hate-mongering.
Now, let's be clear. The point is not whether or not you agree with Deeds. The point is that his views either mirror or go further than McDonnell's and they're not being reported.
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