Considering that the political balance of the Senate hangs on the runoff races taking place this week in Georgia, it’s bizarre that most people who are even paying close attention to the campaigns probably know very little about the two Democrats involved.
Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler are defending their seats from challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively. But while the national media seem to have full archives covering the complete adult lives of Perdue and Loeffler, their well of information on the Democrats is emptier than a virtual chatroom with Jeffrey Toobin.
It’s odd because there are at least some interesting things about both Warnock and Ossoff. Warnock, for example, is a reverend whose church oversaw a camp for children that fell under investigation after facing claims that campers had been physically abused. One of the campers, Anthony Washington, now 30, said in 2002 that counselors at the facility poured urine on him and locked him out of his cabin. His family reached a financial settlement.
Warnock’s ex-wife has also accused him of running over her foot in his car after the two had a heated argument. Warnock denied it, and he was not charged with a crime. Still, his wife has called him an “actor.” It’s a little interesting, right?
None of that made it into a New York Times summary of the campaign that the paper published on Monday, one day ahead of the election. “Here’s a look at the four candidates’ lives and careers,” the write-up began. It went on to say that Loeffler is “the daughter of a wealthy farming family” who has “portrayed herself as a steadfast ally of the president’s.” For her opponent, Warnock, the New York Times simply noted that he believes himself to be “a moral compass.” (A moral compass, which, by the way, points straight to Planned Parenthood.)
Ossoff is admittedly fairly boring, so far as his public record goes. But as a documentary producer, his company has created content that flattered China as a global superpower, and his campaign received money from a China-based telecommunications company. That’s at least a little interesting, right?
Apparently not. That wasn’t in the New York Times summary of Ossoff, either. While the paper said that Perdue, as a business executive, “was deeply involved in shifting manufacturing jobs to low-wage factories in China,” it mentioned not a word of Ossoff’s documentary nor the China-linked campaign donation.
Instead, the New York Times noted that Ossoff was once a volunteer in the congressional office for “civil rights pioneer” John Lewis.
Amazing. It’s almost as if the New York Times and the rest of the national media have a favored outcome in this race.
