Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s, D-Texas, 1998 drunken driving accident isn’t the only thing his media profilers have ignored.
The New York Times did a fine job this week detailing the Democratic Senate candidate’s shady history of political backscratching, including a real-estate deal he championed when he served on the El Paso City Council that would’ve benefited his billionaire father-in-law, developer William D. Sanders.
Sanders’ bid to turn a historically Mexican-American neighborhood into a shopping epicenter ultimately failed, sparing the Latino residents the pain of being displaced and/or losing their homes to eminent domain. But not for Councilman O’Rourke’s lack of trying. One of the chief takeaways from the Times report is that O’Rourke has more in common with gentrifying Brooklyn hipsters than he does with truly grassroots populists, as my Washington Examiner colleague Siraj Hashmi noted.
But two more takeaways occurred to me.
First, I’ve read nearly a dozen media profiles on O’Rourke, and only one mentioned his role in his father-in-law’s attempt to steamroll a traditionally Mexican-American neighborhood. Similarly, of the many puff-piece profiles written about Democratic Senate hopeful, only one mentioned he married into a billionaire family.
For a guy who is supposedly heading a populist blue wave, you’d think newsrooms would find some value in mentioning he’s a suspected crony capitalist who married into big money. But you’d be wrong.
In May 2017, for example, Vanity Fair published a 1,993-word profile nauseatingly titled, “Meet the Kennedyesque Democrat Trying to Beat Ted Cruz.” It makes no mention of the candidate’s father-in-law, the big family money, or the barrio proposal. Later, in February 2018, the New York Times dedicated 1,690 words to profiling the O’Rourke campaign. Again, nothing. On May 22, Time magazine published a 1,658-word profile. Zilch. On July 9, Politico published a 4,800-word profile. It, too, says nothing about the money or the land deal. On July 26, Town and Country published a 3,823-word profile. Nothing.
Things don’t improve from here, which is even more inexcusable considering incumbent Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and his allies went after O’Rourke in early August over his ties to the Sanders real-estate deal. That so many of the subsequent glowing O’Rourke profiles make no mention whatsoever of the barrio episode does no favors for an industry that is already widely distrusted.
On Aug. 19, BuzzFeed published an 8,021-word profile. It says nothing of the Sanders development incident or the family money. On Aug. 31, the Washington Post put aside 1,967 words for the O’Rourke campaign. Nada. On Sept. 4, the Post was back at it with a 2,852-word profile, which, like all the above, made no mention whatsoever of his family money or the since-scuttled barrio deal.
Texas Monthly has the distinction of being one of the only newsrooms to putting any effort into telling the barrio story, which it did in an 8,373-word article published in January titled, “Does Beto O’Rourke Stand a Chance Against Ted Cruz?” However, like many of the other O’Rourke media profiles, the Texas Monthly story makes no mention of the 1998 drunken driving accident in which witnesses and law enforcement officials say he tried to flee the scene of the accident.
All the time and energy spent on these lengthy, supposedly in-depth profiles, all the thousands and thousands of words dedicated to detailing O’Rourke’s love for driving and practicing his Spanish, and newsrooms managed somehow to miss the most damning information from this “Kennedyesque” Democrat’s past.
It’s just a real mystery how that happened!
