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Youngkin keeps getting a pass from the media, but Virginia Senate Democrats are giving no passes [1]

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Date: 2023-01-27  

Youngkin’s “performance as governor was often hard to distinguish from his political ambitions.” That’s a damning take—or would be, if contextualized. The basic conclusion to be drawn from the Post’s picture of Youngkin’s actual performance vs. how he presents himself to bolster presidential ambitions is that his performance as governor is, indeed, a performance aimed at a Fox News audience, with governing Virginia coming as a distant afterthought.

“One year in, he remains something of a cipher.” Does he, though? Or does this sentence represent a failure of media outlets like The Washington Post to either look closely at Youngkin or admit what they’re seeing when they do? In 2021, they pushed candidate Youngkin as a different kind of Republican, a grinning, fleece-wearing moderate. The facts didn’t back that portrayal up at the time, and another year of Youngkin’s culture war moves has accumulated, but the Post cannot, will not consider that maybe he really is the guy on Fox News.

”Most significantly, Youngkin as governor has continued the balancing act he pioneered as a candidate — reaching out to both the Trump base of the GOP and more mainstream Virginia voters.” Again, I’m going to kick this one back to the media and its failures to cover Youngkin as he is rather than Youngkin as he tells the media he is. Media outlets like the Post are essential to Youngkin’s outreach to “more mainstream Virginia voters,” and he uses those outlets aggressively, just as he uses Fox News to reach out to the Trump base of the GOP.

And the Post offers him what he needs here. Amid a partial presentation of the facts of his attacks on schools and transgender kids and teaching about race and racism in the U.S., the reader learns that Youngkin works really hard. “Staffers report getting texts as early as 5:30 a.m.” and he “carried state budget documents with him everywhere as it was being prepared and personally crunched many of the numbers.”

”Youngkin also wears his Christian faith openly, beginning many administrative meetings by delivering a prayer.” No, really? What a bombshell! Most politicians work so hard to hide their Christian faith. That Youngkin sure is a special guy.

Youngkin’s media-wooing act is important in the sense that he’s the governor of a major state, with presidential ambitions. But when a newspaper like the Post assembles the pieces and ostentatiously refuses to put them together, it does its readers a disservice. The good news is, Virginia has its state Senate as a firewall to the ugliness Youngkin and the Republican-controlled General Assembly would like to pass. This year, the General Assembly is up for reelection. It would be nice if the Post and other media outlets didn’t keep covering for Youngkin.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/27/2149572/-Youngkin-keeps-getting-a-pass-from-the-media-but-Virginia-Senate-Democrats-are-giving-no-passes

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