Category: Media
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Democratic Dumpster Fires
by Kerry Dougherty Words matter. And here’s one handy litmus test – if any are needed – to unmask news outlets that are in the bag for the left. It’s the use of the verb “pounce” to describe conservatives reacting to any Democrat act. Here’s an example from our local newspaper: Buckle up, I’m going…
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Lies, Damn Lies, and Presidential Debates
by James A. Bacon Virginia played prominently in the disinformation spewed by President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump in their first 2024 presidential debate last night. Biden brought up the seemingly unkillable canard that Trump referred to the White supremacists in the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville as “good people.” Meanwhile,…
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Honey, I Shrunk the Newspaper
Newspapers are dying slow deaths of a thousand small cuts. Here’s the latest from the Richmond Times-Dispatch… According to Executive Editor Chris Coates, beginning July 4, the RTD will switch to a “digital-only format” on the following holidays: Independence Day, Labor Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’…
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So Much Privilege, So Much Self Pity
Sometimes schadenfreude is the best freude of all. It seems that the Democracy-dies-in-darkness people are feeling a little darkness themselves. Since 2020, The Washington Post has experienced a 50% decline in its audience, and the enterprise lost $70 million last year. Seventy-million dollars? Hey, that’s real money even to WaPo owner Jeff Bezos, one of…
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No, Virginia Beach Did NOT Cut Taxes
by Kerry Dougherty I don’t normally link to Virginian-Pilot stories. Today is an exception. Find the fiction in this one: “Virginia Beach Adopts $2.6 Billion Budget, Cutting Taxes and Increasing City Worker Pay.” Once again, the press joins the city in spreading a fantasy. This time it’s that when the city council lowered the property…
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Beach College Weekend Was a Dud: The Good News & The Bad.
by Kerry Dougherty Talk about spinning until you’re dizzy, get a load of the local coverage of last weekend’s taxpayer-subsidized Audacity Oceanfront Concerts: Describing the anemic “crowds” as “smaller-than-expected” The Virginian-Pilot added “That’s not to say those who attended didn’t have a good time.” Oh please. We, the taxpayers, gave the organizers of this dud…
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The Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper
A story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch sums up the state of media coverage in the state’s capital city. The city of Richmond is considering entering into an agreement to move the city’s Department of Social Services into the Richmond Times-Dispatch building. The agency will occupy three floors of the four-story building. The newspaper staff will…
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New Novel: Midnight’s Broken Toll
by Joe Fitzgerald All politics is personal. So it’s an open question why Mickey MacNamara runs for the state Senate. Is it to win the job or to hurt the man who holds the seat? The incumbent had a hand in the failures of Mickey’s father; Mickey has the time and resources to try and…
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Yes, MSNBC Morons, Virginia IS a Border State.
by Kerry Dougherty Remember back on the night of Super Tuesday when MSNBC’s far-left host Rachel Maddow and former Biden mouthpiece Jen Psaki convulsed in laughter as they reported that the number one issue for Republican voters was the border? “Well Virginia does have a border with West Virginia,” Maddow cackled, sending the panel of…
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Remembering Larry Maddry
by Kerry Dougherty What happens when corporate bean counters drive out all of their experienced workers and replace them with fresh-faced kids right out of school? Bad things. In the case of newspapers, it means hiring reporters who are unfamiliar with the area. It means all of the curmudgeonly grammarians are gone and there’s no…
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Stay Calm: Police Finally Release Make and Model of the Va. Beach Pier Car
by Kerry Dougherty Everyone try to maintain your composure. Let’s all stay calm. Perhaps a few moments of meditation are in order. Deep breath. Ready? We finally know the make and model of the car that drove off the 14th Street pier more than a week ago. The police had that information but withheld it…
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Too Many Pieces of the 14th Street Pier Puzzle Don’t Fit
by Kerry Dougherty Day two and we have more questions than answers about what happened Saturday morning on the 14th Street pier in Virginia Beach. Yes, we know an SUV drove through two barriers and off the end of the pier. We learned that strong ocean currents and murky water are creating problems for those…
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Barbie, Liars, and Newspapers Circling the Drain
by Kerry Dougherty Warning: I’m a tad grouchy today. You see, I’m a hyperactive gym rat who hasn’t worked out since last Tuesday and has been slowed down by surgery. That happened Wednesday, by the way, when a skilled orthopedic surgeon sawed off part of my leg. In other words, I’ve had way too much…
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Racism Comes in All Colors
by Kerry Dougherty What follows here is fiction. Totally imaginary. Still, picture this with me: The mayor of Virginia’s largest city — that would be Virginia Beach, population 458,000 — decides to hold a holiday party for city council members on city property. The mayor — and let me remind you this is hypothetical, it…
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Asleep at the Switch in Harrisonburg
by Joe Fitzgerald At some point while on the Harrisonburg City Council, I quit worrying about or getting angry about being misquoted by the Daily News-Record, and I got used to the people I met saying I wasn’t anything like what they expected. The expectations the paper created were just part of the gig. And…