Category: Media
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Wonders Never Cease: WaPo Gives Fair Treatment to Alumni Rebellion
by James A. Bacon Every once in a while The Washington Post reminds us of the kind of newspaper it used to be — capable of producing balanced journalism. Education reporter Susan Svrluga has published an article describing the rise of what I (not she) call the alumni rebellion. She cites the concerns of Virginia-based…
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How’s Your Climate Emergency Going? Hanging In?
by Steve Haner How is your climate emergency going so far? We seem to be hanging in well at my house. The media hype around this fairly typical July hot spell has been off the charts, but my favorite headline of the season appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch (home of at least one climate jeremiad…
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Another Daily Newspaper Circles the Drain
by James A. Bacon The Daily Progress, Charlottesville’s daily newspaper, no longer offers daily delivery on its website, reports WINA talk show host Rob Schilling. Potential subscribers are given only two options at the newspaper website: a digital subscription (introductory offer of $1.00 for 26 weeks) and a month of Sunday-only delivery for $21.67. Describing…
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About Those 30 Police Shootings in Virginia Last Year…
by James A. Bacon Police shootings generate an inordinate amount of attention in the media, but the number of incidents is remarkably rare. Of the millions of interactions in 2021 between police and citizens here in Virginia, including 187,000 arrests, there were 30 police shootings resulting in injury or death, according to the Crime in…
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What’s With All the TJ Haters?
I was pleased to have an opportunity this morning to discuss the swelling anti-Thomas Jefferson sentiment in contemporary culture on The John Reid show on WRVA. In particular, I criticized the University of Virginia Alumni Association for turning down an ad from The Jefferson Council (on whose board I serve) that defended Jefferson’s reputation for…
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The Only Thing “Systemic” About VMI Is the WaPo’s Cherry Picking of Data
by James A. Bacon Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira was up to his old tricks in an article published over the weekend about Governor Glenn Youngkin’s appointments to the Virginia Military Institute Board of Visitors. Predictably, he portrayed the divisions at VMI as between rival camps of those who “support change” and “those resisting it”…
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African-Americans the Main Victims of Virginia Crime Wave
by James A. Bacon The Virginia State Police has published its 2021 Crime in Virginia report, and the big news — that homicides and violent crime continued their two-year surge — seemed not to pique much interest in the mainstream media. To be sure, the television stations, where crime news is a staple, and the…
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Colin Greene and the Emergence of Richmond’s Deep State
by James A. Bacon Colin Greene is still state health commissioner, but I’m predicting he’ll have to pull a Ralph Northam in order to last in his position. After he dared to express skepticism that “structural racism” is a useful explanation for racial health disparities, the left is eager to take him out. Even issuing…
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Bacon Bits: It’s Come to This
As long as you’re here, would you like to check out a book? With public libraries struggling for relevance in a world in which anyone can buy a book online, the Arlington Public Library has found a new role to play in the community: dispensing Naloxone (Narcan), a nasal spray that counters opioid overdoes. Deaths…
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Progressive Dogma Untethered to Results – Voter Laws Edition
by James C. Sherlock The armies of the progressive left are what the great political scientist George Edwards called “Prisoners of Their Premises.” Many persons and institutions are captives, to a greater or lesser degree. Lesser is better in this case. Mistakes flow from the best of intentions. You can learn from them or repeat…
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The Fall of the Regional Press in Virginia – Virginian-Pilot Edition
By James C. Sherlock One of my morning newspapers is The Virginian-Pilot. It used to be an outstanding regional newspaper. Shrunken to a sliver of its former self, it is no longer. Small size need not compromise integrity, but it has in this case. The Pilot unapologetically accepts, apparently without review, wire service reports…
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A Lot of Unanswered Questions
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Painting racial slurs on the face of an unconscious Black teenage boy is wrong. That being said, a recent incident in the Richmond area leads to a lot of questions, including concerning the quality of reporting done by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. According to an RTD on-line story Friday by reporter Mark Bowes,…
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Bylined Utility Puffery in Richmond Times-Dominion
by Steve Haner I guess what shows up in the driveway every morning is now called the Richmond Times-Dominion. On yesterday’s front page, and today picked up and spread across the state by the Virginia Public Access Project, was a long, puffy public relations piece about Dominion’s proposed Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. It was…
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The Washington Post’s Sleazy Tactics
by Kerry Dougherty For those who are new around here, I spent 42 years in newspapers. I may not know much about many topics, but I have a clear, first-hand understanding of daily journalism. Until rather recently newspapers did a pretty good job of breaking news stories on deadline, while reliably getting it right. Not…
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Washington Post Editorial Board Nails a Belly Flop
by James C. Sherlock We sometimes note here that the editorial boards of the largest press outlets in Virginia can seem out of touch. Most lack philosophical balance on their editorial boards. We get that. It is their right. But that in turn can create intellectual echo chambers, denying the discipline offered by internal challenges.…