The Washington Post Halloween blackface story is an embarrassment to journalism. For the love of all that is good, please let this be the zenith of cancel culture. reason.com/2020/06/18/was…
Seriously, did no editor at @washingtonpost realize that this was a terrible idea? The incident concerns a party mostly attended by Post staffers, which first off is a huge conflict of interest. And of course the incident is years old and concerns no on of public significance.
The article is titled "Blackface incident at Post cartoonist's 2018 Halloween party resurfaces amid protests." The only reason this incident is "surfacing" at all is that the Post lacked the courage to tell the two women pictured in the article's photo to get over themselves.
Instead, they are glamorized and lionized. They are photographed as brave truth tellers. The article is on their side, even though one of their claims—they were harassed by Schafer—is repeatedly undermined throughout the article!
The two women say they were harassed by Schafer. But they approached her, called her ugly and pointed out her wrinkles, and yelled at her. The Post fails to challenge the "harassment" contention, however.
In wanting revenge on Schafer, Gruber and Prince suggested to the Post cartoonist that he is complicit in Schafer's racism unless he denounces her. (And some of y'all balked at my French Revolution comparisons.) That's what led to the story.
Seems to me like The Post thought throwing Schafer under the bus would immunize them from charges that they were complicit. So this is journalism in the service of activism and personal revenge, but also in service of avoiding becoming the target. It's cowardice.
If there's a more egregious case of bad journalism on this subject, it doesn't come to mind. This deeply undermines my respect for The Washington Post's news judgement. I rarely call people out in this manner but @TrentPost and @mffisher should be ashamed of themselves.
(Gruber and Prince should also be ashamed of themselves, but I can't imagine they are capable of it. )
