Washington Post Coverage

[Anonymous]

I only read the Post online, so I'm not sure what it's coding in the print edition, but what I'm seeing is shocking, they are writing about Fenty this and Fenty that. We have a new mayor elect. It was obvious he was going to win. Can't the Post do a profile of him, so the public can get to know him better? I also do not appreciate how they are playing up Rhee's bombastic statements, instead of Fenty's announced support of Gray. Rhee seemed humbled yesterday morning on the Andrea Mitchell show, but now she's slamming the results, calling them devastating for DC's school children. Now, that is reckless. She is badmouthing the victor. Once again, she forgets that school children read the paper and catch the TV news. If my child heard or read this, and he might by the time the day is done, he'd wonder what bad things the new mayor was going to do to DC's schools. Anyway, back to the Post, they're playing this up, the coverage has sore loser written all over it.

[Anonymous]

I should say a mayor apparent, he's not the mayor elect until November!

[Anonymous]

I think the real story today is how a successful mayor failed to be re-elected.

They have four months before Gray is inaugurated.

[Anonymous]

They ran that story yesterday. There are two stories here. How Gray toppled the incumbent. This was an expected outcome. Believe me, if the Post were pro-Gray, they'd be all over Gray as a personality and as a campaigner. My sense is that the Post is spooked because of the race component. (80% whites voted for Fenty, 80% AA voted for Gray.)

[jsteele]

My view of the Post, or at least its editorial page, is well-documented in a blog post on the home page of this website. But, I'd be interested in hearing what others think of Courtland Milloy's column today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091506240.html

It appears like Milloy may have been holding in a lot of resentment.

[Anonymous]

I think the real story today is how a successful mayor failed to be re-elected.

They have four months before Gray is inaugurated.

Agreed. And the editorial page set a congratulatory tone for Gray, saying that only focusing on Fenty's loss is to underestimate the power of Gray's appeal: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091505842.html

Coutland Milloy's column was despicable.

[Anonymous]

Despicable would be this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/artsandliving/inout.html?hpid=dynamiclead

[Anonymous]

I'm OP. I'm also a journalist. Newspapers are supposed to be able to predict what people want to read. Everyone I know wants to know more about Gray NOW. It was obvious he was going to win. If folks want to wait four months to learn more about Gray, that's their business. I want to know more about Gray. Plus, to me the lack of coverage underscores the paper's bias towards Fenty.

[Anonymous]

I agree with you OP. It is damaging, and encouraging the widening of the racial divide to continue to ignore Gray, and to keep the spotlight and focus on Fenty. The city needs to move forward. More about Gray, NOW!

[Anonymous]

Agreed. And the editorial page set a congratulatory tone for Gray, saying that only focusing on Fenty's loss is to underestimate the power of Gray's appeal: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/artic...010/09/15/AR2010091505842.html

Coutland Milloy's column was despicable.

The article was grudgingly congratulatory, with a warning that the progress we've seen over the past three years and nine months are about to come to a halt.

Courtland Milloy's rhetoric may have been incendiary, but much of his analysis is spot on. (I'm white and part of the imported middle class)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Despicable would be this: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/artsandliving/inout.html?hpid=dynamiclead

I just thought it was kind of lame.

Oh, and Milloy is a gasbag.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:My view of the Post, or at least its editorial page, is well-documented in a blog post on the home page of this website. But, I'd be interested in hearing what others think of Courtland Milloy's column today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091506240.html

It appears like Milloy may have been holding in a lot of resentment.

Pretty sad when a columnist for the major city daily sounds as utterly nutty as the worst anonymous commenter on the internet. And that's after his guy *won*. Shameful this guy even has a job at the Post. Adds nothing to the dialogue we can't get from the Post's anonymous comment pages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree with you OP. It is damaging, and encouraging the widening of the racial divide to continue to ignore Gray, and to keep the spotlight and focus on Fenty. The city needs to move forward. More about Gray, NOW!

Jesus, even when you guys *win* the election you're a bunch of whiny-assed titty babies. Can't imagine what you'd be like if Gray had lost.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:My view of the Post, or at least its editorial page, is well-documented in a blog post on the home page of this website. But, I'd be interested in hearing what others think of Courtland Milloy's column today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/15/AR2010091506240.html

It appears like Milloy may have been holding in a lot of resentment.

I'd say it encapsulates the fears some Fenty supporters have about a Gray administration. It's shot through with entitlement politics (implying city workers/schoolteachers are somehow entitled to jobs because of their race/circumstances) and divisive language (deriding the "newly arrived creative class" with their "social media" (and isn't that pretty blatant code for "white people"?) as "myopic little twits"). Moreover, characterizing Fenty's entire administration as a "plantation-style" "antebellum system of control" of "friendly fascism" that was only interested in serving "the interest of business leaders and landed gentry" and the "privileged few" is neither helpful not particularly accurate, and late in the article he inexplicable switches gears by claiming that residents believe in "representative democracy" - as if Fenty was appointed by the head of the RNC, as opposed to winning his first election by a wide margin.

Couple that with the quote from Jack Evans (from another Post article) that “the challenge for Gray will be "how to deal with all the groups who come to him saying: 'I supported you. Where's my share?' "”

Right or wrong, the perception of many Fenty supporters is that while Gray may not be an “old-school DC politician,” he is beholden to many of the groups that characterized and dominated old-school DC politics (for example, his comment, and I can’t find the quote right now, about having a much closer relationship with the churches). The fear is that all of those groups will want their slice of the pie, and if Gray wants to be reelected, he’ll have to pander to them. Milloy’s column reinforces that perception, and that fear. I hope it’s a misperception, and a misplaced fear, but we’ll have to wait and see.

On another note, Rhee’s comments that this was a terrible day for DC students, or words to that effect, are ever more despicable – she’s a DC official, and should support the schools as long as she has a position. Milloy is just a columnist, and is paid to express his opinion.

[Anonymous]

In the spirit of Milloy's column, I'll submit some JRB Molotov-cocktail throwing:

African Americans, particularly the privileged class and their white enablers, may think, yet again, that with Gray they have the ideal leadership model—a hefty portion of the old, with a tad of the new. But they need only look to the White House to understand the movement of history. Even if Gray wins the Democratic primary, the victims of 1985 syndrome, longing for yesteryears, can click their ruby slippers all day long, but there will be no going back.

We aren’t in their District of Columbia any more.

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39711/dc-politics-loves-the-eighties-dc-may-have-changed-but/

Unhinged polemic? Sure. But no worse than Milloy's little primal scream.