The Washington Post’s editorial board published a piece praising Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam months after calling for his resignation.
The opinion article published on Saturday is headlined, “How Ralph Northam came back from the political dead,” and goes on to applaud his tenure in office after the fallout of a national blackface scandal in February.
Saturday’s editorial stands in stark contrast to one from February with the headline, “Ralph Northam must resign.”
The Washington Post’s editorial opens with pointing out that history is littered with stories of second chances.
“The history of U.S. politics is full of second chances — of scandal-scarred, disgraced and irredeemable public figures staging improbable comebacks — but few back-from-the-dead narratives have been as swift and sure-footed as the one Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has managed this year,” the editorial begins.
On Feb. 1, a photograph from Northam’s 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook was uncovered that showed a pair of unidentified people wearing blackface and a Ku Klux Klan hood. Northam initially admitted he was in the photo, but he then backtracked and said he’d actually appeared in blackface at a different time.
The Washington Post pointed out that since then, Northam, 60, has put racial issues at the top of his to-do list. They note that “scarcely a week or month has passed without Mr. Northam visiting a racially significant site, seeking out counsel from black leaders or announcing an initiative to advance racial justice.”
“Mr. Northam has refocused his governorship on racial equity and reconciliation in what amounted to an extended act of public contrition and atonement,” the piece reads.
“Quite a comeback, and a hard-earned one, for a governor who could scarcely show his face in public in February,” the editorial concluded.
On social media, the about-face from one of the country’s largest newspapers prompted a wave of criticism from conservatives.
“Here is a perfect example of the huge advantage Democrats have with the media’s bias in their favor,” said former Virginia GOP Chairman John Whitbeck.
Here is a perfect example of the huge advantage Democrats have with the media’s bias in their favor. https://t.co/9OHbhIgNpG
— John Whitbeck (@JohnWhitbeck) December 28, 2019
Redemption can only be found in faithful devotion to the Democratic Party agenda. They make no distinction between virtue and partisanship. https://t.co/LvBlhPysim
— David Harsanyi (@davidharsanyi) December 28, 2019
The lack of racial and ideological diversity at mainstream media outlets like @washingtonpost is stunning. Too many outlets have become outposts for white liberal elites to lecture minorities on what they should or shouldn’t think. https://t.co/sWQHjHibWO
— Katrina Pierson (@KatrinaPierson) December 28, 2019
If we like your policies, we’ll cut you slack appears to be the rule. Should the press be rooting so hard for outcomes that it departs from a single standard?
— Walter Olson (@walterolson) December 28, 2019
