OPINION:
July has been an especially rough month for The Washington Post, where the slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was adopted in 2017 as an obvious jab at then-President Donald Trump, whom they viewed as a danger to public discourse. It turns out that it’s often the writers at the Post who are the direct threats to people who want to be accurately informed.
On three different occasions during the month, three Post “journalists” made either gross mistakes or clear misrepresentations of facts which purposely promoted decidedly left-wing (and false) narratives.
Ever on the lookout for stories of oppression, Post pop culture writer Emily Yahr managed to paint the celebrated musician Tracy Chapman, who is estimated to have sold over 30 million records, as somehow being kept down because she is a Black lesbian.
You see, country star Luke Combs reached the top spot on the Billboard Country Airplay chart with a cover of Ms. Chapman’s iconic song, “Fast Car,” which is one of those tunes that you feel like every living human knows by heart.
And rather than celebrate the fact that the song was given another turn in the spotlight for a new audience in a different genre, Ms. Yahr’s only reaction was that it was “renewing difficult conversations about diversity in Nashville.”
Ms. Yar grudgingly admitted that Mr. Combs’ success meant that Ms. Chapman became the first Black woman ever to write a No. 1 country hit, but her overall message was one of despair. She willfully ignored the universal adulation Ms. Chapman received for the 1988 song.
Back then, “Fast Car” captured three Grammy nominations, and Ms. Chapman won for best female pop vocal performance. It won MTV’s award for best female video in 1989. The album on which it appeared rose to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart and sold over 6 million copies in the U.S. alone.
Worldwide, the album sold more than 20 million copies, solidly making it one of the best-selling albums in history. For good measure, Rolling Stone magazine placed “Fast Car” at number 71 on their list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
And as it happens, Ms. Chapman herself apparently didn’t get the memo of sorrow that was apparently circulating at the Post.
“I never expected to find myself on the country charts, but I’m honored to be there,” she said. “I’m happy for Luke and his success and grateful that new fans have found and embraced ‘Fast Car.’”
It should also be noted that Ms. Chapman will be receiving handsome royalty checks thanks to Mr. Combs’ success with her creation.
To find injustice online, the Post turned to tech writer Taylor Lorenz, who lamented that only “high-profile far-right influencers” were receiving cash payouts through Twitter’s new ad revenue sharing system. But that just wasn’t true.
Ignored in her story was the fact that in order to take part in the program, users must pay for a Twitter Blue subscription, an idea that many on the left have openly mocked and rejected. If leftist influencers don’t subscribe, they can’t get paid.
She also failed to note that many nonconservative accounts did receive payouts, including @InternetHOF, @MrBeast, and liberal brothers Ed and Brian Krassenstein. To be fair, her story was updated to include the Krassensteins, with a lame editor’s note that she “became aware” after her story was published.
But the grandmother of them all was Post columnist Jennifer Rubin, who would be even more confused than she is now if she ever met herself a decade ago when she was known as a conservative writer. Today, of course, Ms. Rubin spews orthodox leftist pablum with every written word.
This time, she took on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has enough problems on his hands with a campaign for president that’s been going nowhere fast. Ms. Rubin cited census figures previously published by Business Insider to poke at Mr. DeSantis’ record in Florida, claiming that more people have moved away from the state than have moved in.
The problem was that Business Insider had corrected their story three days earlier because they had gotten the population data exactly backward — Florida’s population has, in fact, grown and not shrunk.
Three days earlier! And Ms. Rubin still got it wrong.
The Post eventually corrected her column, pretty much negating its central point but only blandly admitting that the census figures had been “misstated.” Meanwhile, as of the writing of this column, Ms. Rubin’s own tweet promoting the piece is still up on Twitter.
This is what we mean by leftist media. The distortions and errors inevitably flow in only one direction, and there is seldom a consequence for incompetence or ill intent.
• Tim Murtaugh is a Washington Times columnist and vice president for communication strategy at National Public Affairs, a political consulting firm.
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