Note to The Virginian-Pilot, Google Search Includes Black Lawmakers, ie: @BobbyScott
DEAR VIRGINIAN-PILOT 🤔 GOOGLE SEARCHES BLACKS TOO. Anyone who is in the business of journalism should know: This is a really bad time to be grossly incompetent. There are now threats to our democracy and the first amendment and they are serious. There are elected officials barring media from their events. There are politicians who evade questions as they use public money. There are liars who lie openly with impunity to win attention.
It’s critically important that media organizations report facts, recognize misinformation and call out deliberate efforts to traffic and amplify disinformation. It’s also important that media correct the public record when they get duped, which occurs all too often. An obvious and growing trend in the current technological age is using traditional media to platform disinformation.
The level of laziness on some media platforms has reached a critically high level in this era of misinformation. To state the obvious: Media should be acting as the guardians of truth. We know why media has changed: Sensationalism + Clicks = Money. Publishing anything that gets those clicks is driving bad decision making in journalism. Facebook has made outrage a moneymaker while killing local journalism while reseting algorithms.
🚩 READ: NYT - Whistle-Blower Says Facebook ‘Chooses Profits Over Safety’
But hey Virginian-Pilot, when you have a member of Congress in your area who oversees hundreds of billions of federal dollars on two top issues — education and jobs — you may just want to report on that individual accurately. That person is Congressman Bobby Scott, the U.S. Representative of Virginia’s third congressional district.
YOU PUBLISHED THAT? 🤔 On Sept. 14, 2022 The Virginian-Pilot published a letter by Carl Anderson of Hampton (at bottom). Was the letter fact-checked? Apparently not. Rarely does a moment encapsulate the incompetence and inability to safeguard basic factual information on a media platform. We knew The Virginian-Pilot’s sale of their headquarters in 2020 and merger with The Daily Press was a sign of trouble. We knew that a paper failing to fully explain “columnist” Gordon Morse was a further signs of trouble … but this?
All anyone at the The Pilot had to do was Google “Bobby Scott” to learn that the letter was misinformation. That, and the words “being the first Black person elected to something…” should have been a clue the letter was trafficking in bullshit. Against the backdrop of The Pilot’s lack of coverage of the legislative work of Rep. Scott over time — the letter’s publication is even more noteworthy.
No one at The Pilot had the investigative skills to find this link?
➡️ https://edlabor.house.gov/issues/peopleoverpolitics
The link reveals really not-so-hard-to-find information of Scott’s work as Chairman of one of the most vital committees in Congress. Rep. Scott is currently Chair of the U.S. House Education and Labor. The committee covers education and jobs — two subjects at the top of every list people are polled on when asked: “What issue is important to you…”
A few bills signed in to law are below — as seen on the website for the committee:
This isn’t investigative journalism. This is just Google. Shouldn’t doing the work of basic fact checking be standard practice in journalism before something is published? Yes, local news is dying and the desperation is clear. But fact checking on Google is free. Fact checking can’t take a back seat to chasing clicks in the attention economy. When a community doesn’t see itself reflected accurately — or reported on at all — it will turn elsewhere for information. C’mon Virginian-Pilot editors, please wake up. This shouldn’t be hard to figure out after two decades of disruptive tech. News organizations render themselves irrelevant when they erase what a community knows is important.
Here’s a chart of Rep. Scott’s work to assist everyone who seeks facts. This is all easily searchable on Google, AP, Getty and Reuters:
YES, VIRGINIAN-PILOT, GOOGLE IS A THING — SINCE 1998. A ten second Google search would reveal the work of Congressman Scott. He’s the lead sponsor on more than just a few federal laws passed over the years. Further, Rep. Scott would appear to be the most prolific lawmaker in the history of the Virginia delegation. If we’re wrong, demonstrate it with facts. Please feel free to send receipts to BlackVirginiaNews@gmail.com.
We reviewed the work of former U.S. Representatives Frank Wolf, Jim Moran, Bob Goodlatte and Senator John Warner — and found that Rep. Scott eclipses them regarding legislation signed in to law over two decades and regardless of the party in power in the White House or Congress.
On Dec. 21, 2018, during Trump’s presidency this happened in the Oval Office during the bill signing for the Juvenile Justice Reform Bill (did The Pilot/Daily Press report this?)
If we analyze the Virginia congressional delegation more broadly it’s a safe bet that Rep. Scott’s record of work alongside the legislative careers of Reps. Denver Riggleman, Virgil Goode, Scott Rigell, Thelma Drake, Glenn Nye, Scott Taylor and Dave Brat — outpaces them easily.
It has become customary that members of Congress brag openly about “not wanting to be be in DC…” and “less government” instead of performing legislative work. Problem is, they demonstrate that view by completing almost no legislative work.
Perhaps Carl Anderson in Hampton doesn’t know about the work Rep. Scott has done because The Pilot/Daily Press rarely reports on it?
One of the reasons blogs and YouTube TV exist in this technological age is the lack of information on certain events and for specific communities. In this example, the community is the Commonwealth of Virginia. When a member of the congressional delegation oversees billions in federal money, we’re pretty sure they should receive news coverage.
With regard to Rep. Scott, an elected official currently doing the heaviest lifting in Virginia’s delegation in terms of dollars, it’s amazing to watch some of Virginia’s news organizations ignore that work so consistently — with what almost seems like deliberate erasure. If your “first draft of history” mission doesn’t include someone with the most influence overseeing billions, who does it include? What is your editorial mission? Who are you serving?
Forty-eight hours ago, this past Monday, Sept. 26, Rep. Scott held a forum on gun violence in Newport News. Gun violence is an issue all local news regularly reports on. One would think such a forum on gun violence would have particular relevance for The Pilot given the senseless murder of their reporter Sierra Jenkins in March of this year.
Monday’s forum, which focused on prevention policy and not just repetition of what’s already known, featured law enforcement, elected officials, clergy, candidates for office and local community leaders who work on the issue.
Did the Virginian-Pilot or The Daily Press send someone to cover that discussion? All three local TV stations (WAVY, 13NEWS, and WTKR3 did). Should anyone continue to wonder why local print journalism is failing?
Why is it that The Virginian Pilot (along with the Richmond Times Dispatch) barely mentions the work of Rep. Scott or Rep. Don McEachin? Perhaps The Pilot’s editors should review the self-study that the Kansas City Star did on itself regarding how it covered (or didn’t cover…) Kansas City’s Black community over decades.
This form of erasure has been a historic fact since the invention of the printed press. This is not a new phenomenon. What is new is the lack of coverage and the spread of misinformation in place of the lack of coverage.
🚩 The erasure of facts sets in to motion an endless loop of ignorance:
1. Media ignores/erases.
2. Public remains ignorant.
3. Community cynicism grows.
4. Repeat.
The Kansas City Star’s study on their own journalism was quite revealing. That they were able to suppress ego and have the guts to undertake an analysis that revealed shortcomings in their coverage of the Black community and then make the results public is noteworthy. The Baltimore Sun did the same on Feb. 18, 2022 after 185 years. That no publication in Virginia has attempted to confront historic and continuing issues of race and journalism and how it impacts what’s published is absolutely no surprise to us.
Just a simple request Virginian-Pilot: Stop platforming inaccurate information from individuals who have no idea what the facts are. Facts are a thing and so is Google. Protecting the truth and safeguarding facts should not be a struggle in this technological age. A news organization that’s been around since 1865 should know the difference after 157 years.
Once again: This is a particularly bad time in history for guardians of truth to fail.
The Sept. 14, 2022 letter as published in The Virginian-Pilot:
Questions, tips, facts, documents, press releases — please e-mail BlackVirginiaNews@gmail.com.
Thank you Congressman Scott for all that you have done and continue to do for those with behavioral health needs.