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<\/p>\nThe Washington Post<\/strong>\u00a0(11\/6\/18<\/a>) touts a “sane center” that it did much to define and promote.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The votes were hardly in when the Washington Post<\/b> (11\/6\/18<\/a>) started explaining why Republican Gov. Larry Hogan won reelection in deep blue Maryland. It was largely due \u201cto his moderation,\u201d the Post<\/b> claimed.<\/p>\n As it shilled for Hogan, the Post<\/b>\u2014which is influential in much of Maryland\u2014simultaneously painted his opponent, Democrat Ben Jealous, as too extreme<\/a>, even though most Marylanders supported his platform, which included Medicare for all, free state college tuition and a $15-an-hour minimum wage.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the Post<\/b>, a fiscal hawk when it comes to spending tax dollars on public needs, said Jealous lost because he \u201copted for an expansive leftist platform that included so much spending on so many new, pie-in-the-sky programs.\u201d<\/p>\n The paper was noticeably less concerned when Hogan offered an eye-popping $8.5 billion to Amazon<\/b>, whose founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos, is the world\u2019s richest man, and owner of the Post<\/b>.<\/p>\n For the Post<\/b>, Hogan\u2019s win demonstrates the appeal of \u201cmoderation,\u201d but the real lesson is this: Money is king, and the Post<\/b> is kingmaker.<\/p>\n TV Ad$<\/b><\/p>\n Larry Hogan\u2019s reelection bid was backed by an unprecedented<\/a> $19 million campaign war chest and a deep pool of outside money, in particular<\/a> from the Republican Governors Association, where Hogan serves as vice chair.<\/p>\n With a comparative pittance in the bank\u2014and little financial help<\/a> from the Democratic Party\u2014Jealous had to rely on the media to relay his progressive platform to voters. But the Post<\/b> made this difficult by burying Jealous\u2019s popular policies under unflattering coverage<\/a>.<\/p>\n This Washington Post<\/strong> editorial (10\/29\/18<\/a>)\u00a0gave the Hogan campaign a strong attack line with its “Chesapeake Bay\u2013sized hole” accusation.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Post<\/b>\u2019s portrayal of Jealous as being too extreme was furthered by the RGA\u2019s ad campaigns, which blanketed the state. \u201cWhile the attack ads on Jealous haven\u2019t been as blatantly racist\u201d as those targeting the other two black gubernatorial candidates on the ballot this election, reported the HuffPost<\/b>\u2019s Julia Craven (9\/14\/18)<\/a>, \u201cmany of them have claimed Jealous is a \u2018socialist\u2019 who will \u2018blow a Chesapeake Bay\u2013sized hole\u2019 in the state\u2019s economy.\u201d<\/p>\n Jealous repeatedly denied being a socialist (\u201cI\u2019m a venture capitalist, not a socialist\u201d), but the Post<\/b> kept raising<\/a> the issue, turning this line of questioning into a line of attack\u2014one which Hogan<\/a> and the RGA<\/a> were aggressively pursuing at the time.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the quote that Jealous will \u201cblow a Chesapeake Bay\u2013sized hole\u201d in the budget is from a Post<\/b> editorial (10\/29\/18)<\/a> and was subsequently used in an RGA attack ad<\/a>, which was part of a series of racially tinged ads that disturbed Baltimore Sun<\/b> media critic David Zurawik (11\/2\/18)<\/a>:<\/p>\n Hogan\u2019s media success rests in part on some very old and ugly tactics. I can\u2019t overstate how troubled I was by the way the RGA ads framed Jealous visually in darkness and shadows and consistently showed him with facial expressions that would best be described a snarling, glaring, frustrated or angry.<\/p>\n There is a history of African-American men being depicted this way in media, and it\u2019s disturbing that Hogan\u2019s allies would go there.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Rather than joining the Sun<\/b> in condemning these ads, the Post <\/b>(7\/30\/18)<\/a> eagerly cited them.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, the Post<\/b> described Jealous (whom I supported<\/a>) as a \u201ccoup leader<\/a>\u201d pushing \u201ccraven\u201d and \u201creckless\u201d policies, and promising \u201cfree lunches.\u201d This echoed Hogan\u2019s campaign, which called Jealous \u201ctoo extreme<\/a>\u201d and said he wanted to hand out<\/a> \u201cfree stuff faster than Jos A. Banks at a Labor Day suit sale.\u201d<\/p>\n The Post<\/b> was as hard on Jealous as it was gentle on Hogan, whom it described as a \u201cjocular,\u201d \u201cfrustrated Everyman.\u201d The Post<\/b>\u2019s treatment of Hogan\u2014whose right-wing politics align with the paper\u2019s<\/a>\u2014wasn\u2019t just over the top, it was calculated. To win reelection in deep blue Maryland, Hogan had to appear \u201cbipartisan,\u201d \u201cmoderate\u201d and \u201cpretty much the opposite of Trump,\u201d which is how the Post<\/b> portrayed him.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Post <\/b>hid the fact<\/a> that Hogan was aided by the Tea Party movement, is backed by the right-wing Koch brothers, is close friends<\/a> with Vice President Mike Pence, and is not that far removed from some far right-wingers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cover for White Democrats The Washington Post<\/strong> (10\/29\/18)<\/a> modestly omits its own role in encouraging black voters to warm up to Hogan.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n But forget all that. What the Post<\/b> (10\/29\/18)<\/a> needed readers to know was that \u201cHogan\u2019s popularity among blacks has flourished.\u201d Polls showing this were prominently featured by the Post<\/b>, while a poll showing otherwise was buried<\/a>, as was former President Barack Obama\u2019s endorsement of Jealous.<\/p>\n The Post<\/b>\u2019s efforts and Hogan\u2019s millions help explain why Hogan\u2019s black support doubled<\/a> from 2014, reaching 28 percent, according to a survey<\/a> by Fox News<\/b> and the Associated Press<\/b>. Still, Hogan lost the black vote by a yawning 43 points<\/a> to Jealous, which might surprise Post<\/b> readers, since the paper disproportionately quoted African-Americans critical<\/a> of Jealous<\/a> and praiseful<\/a> of Hogan<\/a>.<\/p>\n Highlighting Hogan\u2019s black support served two purposes. It helped Hogan get a second look among black voters, who may have been reluctant to go along with the Post<\/b>\u2019s choice, because of the paper\u2019s past targeting of candidates<\/a> with black support. And it also may have given white Democrats\u2014a core readership of the Post<\/b>\u2019s\u2014permission to vote for Hogan, since doing so seemed to be a multicultural thing.<\/p>\n The Post<\/b>\u2019s strategy seems to have worked, as Hogan\u2014who improved on his 2014 showing in every county\u2014made some of his biggest gains<\/a> in Montgomery and Prince George\u2019s, where the Post<\/b>\u2019s shadow is most heavily cast. By preventing Jealous from running up the score in these vote-rich Democratic strongholds, Hogan, who dominated the whiter, more suburban and rural jurisdictions, won decisively, becoming just Maryland\u2019s second Republican governor to be reelected.<\/p>\n Voting Irregularities<\/b><\/p>\n Local NBC<\/strong> reporter Shomari Stone (11\/6\/18<\/a>) tweets about long voting lines in majority-black Prince George’s County.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Even as Hogan doubled his support in Prince George\u2019s from 2014, the county, which is majority black, went overwhelmingly for Jealous. Still, the Democrat likely would have won Prince George\u2019s by more votes if not for widespread voting irregularities.<\/p>\n On election day, over a dozen Prince George\u2019s polling places ran out of paper ballots, leading to long waits and an unknown number of people leaving without voting. At one precinct, over 1,500 people waited in line, some for four and five hours. \u201cWe just trying to get our vote in, get our voices heard,\u201d a \u201ctotally exhausted\u201d man told<\/a> NBC4<\/b>\u2019s Shomari Stone.<\/p>\n \u201cThe conditions that bring about five-hour wait times, or thousands standing in line\u2026 are concentrated overwhelmingly in minority precincts,\u201d Carol Anderson, chair of African-American Studies at Emory University, writes in One Person, No Vote<\/i>: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy<\/i>. These \u201clong, seemingly interminable lines,\u201d which are often artificially created by providing fewer resources and poll workers to minority precincts, are one of the tools used by Republicans, who \u201cclearly believe their future success depends more on constricting rather than convincing the electorate,\u201d writes Anderson.<\/p>\n Throughout Maryland, elections are overseen by Republican-led<\/a>, and frequently Hogan-appointed, boards of elections.<\/p>\n When the Associated Press<\/b> called the governor\u2019s race at 9:07 pm on election night, many voters were still in line, particularly in Prince George\u2019s, where up to three dozen precincts stayed open<\/a> past 8 pm due to complications. Meanwhile, next door in Montgomery, a heavily black precinct experienced hours-long waits, which County Councilmember Tom Hucker called \u201cde facto voter suppression<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The day after the election, the Post<\/b> (11\/7\/18) had a front-page story on voter suppression across the country, but it inexplicably failed to mention what occurred in the paper\u2019s own backyard. (The online version of this story\u201411\/6\/18<\/a>\u2014was updated to include a paragraph that lightly touched on the voting problems experienced in Prince George\u2019s.) For print readers, the Post<\/b> finally covered the local issue the following day (11\/8\/18), but on page A40, in a story<\/a> weakly headlined, \u201cFor Some in Md., Long Waits to Vote.\u201d<\/p>\n For the Post<\/b>, the farther away voting irregularities took place, the more alarming<\/a> they seemed to become.<\/p>\n Kingmaker<\/b><\/p>\n The power of the Post<\/b>\u2019s full-throated support may be most apparent not in Hogan\u2019s win, but in the losses of his fellow Republicans.<\/p>\n Come January, the congressional delegation for the immediate Washington region\u2014the Post<\/b>\u2019s primary coverage area\u2014will be entirely Democratic<\/a>. Barbara Comstock, a Republican from Northern Virginia, was the lone holdout, but she lost her swing district decisively this election. The congressmember wasn\u2019t helped by the Post<\/b>, which tied her to Trump, who is deeply disliked throughout the region. On issues like the president\u2019s push to freeze federal pay (Twitter<\/b>, 8\/30\/18<\/a>) or his controversial pick for the Supreme Court (11\/1\/18<\/a>), the Post<\/b> made Comstock answer for her party\u2019s leader\u2014something the paper carefully avoided doing to Hogan.<\/p>\n Like Comstock, a number of Hogan\u2019s fellow Maryland Republicans will soon be out of a job. Unlike the governor, they had to face the electorate without the Post<\/b>\u2019s protection, and it didn\u2019t go well for many of them, even as Hogan notched a historic win.<\/p>\n On election night, an ebullient Hogan boasted that the blue wave was no match for him. \u201cIt turns out I can surf,\u201d said the governor, who neglected to thank the Post<\/b> for giving him his surfboard.<\/p>\n Messages can be sent to the Washington Post <\/strong>at letters@washpost.com<\/a>, or via Twitter<\/strong> @washingtonpost<\/a>. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"WaPo:](\"https:\/\/fair.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/WaPo-Jealous-Populism.png\")
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