I was shocked when I read Anita Kumar’s slanted, inflammatory Washington Post article about Governor McDonnell’s good proposal about restoring voting rights for nonviolent felons.
Here was what Kumar wrote.
McDonnell (R) will require the offenders to submit an essay outlining their contributions to society since their release, turning a nearly automatic process into a subjective one that some say may prevent poor, less-educated or minority residents from being allowed to vote. (WaPo)
Minority residents? I read the story over and over, and Kumar didn’t include a single quote, a single paraphrase, a single hint that anyone said anything about minority residents. What’s the connection between writing an essay and being a minority?
My first question would be “Are you saying that writing an essay is a racial barrier?”
But the only person to make a racial point was Kumar. I emailed Kumar the following:
In your story about McDonnell’s rights-restoration change, you write “some say might prevent poor, less-educated or minority residents from being allowed to vote.”
I don’t see any of the “some” saying anything about minority residents in your story. Are there any quotes you can share that actually have “some” saying McDonnell’s change “might prevent” minority voting?
No response yet, but her story was reprinted today in the Virginian-Pilot, and the paragraph has been rewritten here (It’s in original form in the WaPo…at least for now). In the Pilot, it now reads:
“McDonnell will require the offenders to submit an essay outlining their contributions to society since their release, turning a nearly automatic process into a subjective one.”
Amazing, isn’t it?
Why would a reporter inflame a story with racial overtones when no one spoke of race, at least on the record? And why would the sentence be scrubbed for a reprint?
I’m offended by the Washington Post’s shameless efforts to fan racial flames by spinning a “news” story without any basis in fact.
UPDATE: Kumar has emailed me and said “Those concerns were shared by the Virginia NAACP and other members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus.”
Somehow, those quotes weren’t in the story.
