Because it’s a common run of the milll neighbor vs. neighbor story. But the Post wants to turn it into a gay couple vs a MAGA maniac story. People are tired of this. That’s why the Post readership is in free fall. But they just can’t help themselves. |
It is definitely not a common run-of-the-mill neighbor vs. neighbor story. Nope. A common run-of-the-mill neighbor vs. neighbor story is my neighbor who called the county on their neighbor for work done without a permit. This is not that. Not to mention that, factually, the neighbors in this story are literally a gay couple and a MAGA maniac couple. |
And one actually called the other the f word. |
Which he denies. But he may or may not have said “This is MAGA country!” |
Middleburg is rural. The Plains is rural. Purcellville is rural. Western Loudoun and Northern Fauquier market themselves for being the rural countryside of the sprawling suburbia |
| Ummm….just look at the shirt the complaining neighbor is wearing. “Thou doth protest too much.” There is more to this story, and we’ve seen it before in “conservative Christian” circles. |
| The owner of the restaurant requested and was granted a no trespassing order to the Washers delivered via law enforcement. Angered by this, the Washers limited and enforced use of their parking lot by restaurant patrons. Washer subsequently found a dead rat on his front porch and tossed it to the trash can area belonging to the restaurant. |
The "dispute between neighbors" spin is falling flat. |
and interestingly, I assumed the pic of him was the pic of one of the guys who are gay, -- so wondering if that is part of why they are so homophobic? |
Also, it’s a headline where word economy is valued. “Rural” is five picas. If you don’t know what a pica is, step away from the discussion. |
People are not tired of this. Post readership is not in free fall. Wishing these things were true doesn’t make it true. Neighbor dispute stories are common news fodder. See Rand Paul’s dispute. But also see: https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/east-bay/neighbor-dispute-over-dog-pittsburg/2985727/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/06/06/black-mother-killed-florida-by-neighbor/70292098007/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/neighbor-spats-fences-trees-lawsuits-nastier-11674253978 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/black-woman-says-she-was-racially-harassed-years-police-acted-n1244220 https://www.local10.com/news/local/2023/02/06/miami-man-wins-case-against-neighbor-who-he-claimed-was-harassing-him/ |
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I thought this story was pretty balanced. There’s nothing weird about a feature about a neighbor dispute. They’ve been running those since they invented newspapers.
The guy with the rat is unforgivable. It’s actually a useful litmus test. Was the guy who threw the rat wrong? If your answer is “if they threw the rat first, it’s okay,” then your values are f$&ed. |
Headlines haven’t been optimized for print in over a decade. The Plains is still rural. |
Oh and rural is not necessarily 5 picas in the print version either. The size of the headline font determines how many picas a printed word will be. |
I don’t think the restaurant owners had anything to do with the dead rat. Washer got a rat from somewhere (?) and threw it on restaurant property then photographed it, presumably to report to the health department. Notably, in this case, only one party was dumb enough to put a rat on the other’s property and get caught on video doing so: Washer. |