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| Virginia's Executive Mansion which dates from 1813 |
I'm not sure what's up with the Washington Post, but it seems hell bent on throwing aside serious journalism and focusing instead on sensation, feeding outrage and satiating those looking to find grievance and offense anywhere and everywhere. Indeed, given the manner that the Post staff have sought to fan the flames of racial friction in Virginia, rather than being a serious source of news, elements of the newspaper seem to be holding up the National Inquirer as their template. What's caused me to go off? A ridiculous piece in the Washington Post authored by Laura Vozzella who's claim to fame based on her bio is that she was a food writer and sometime political columnist at the Baltimore Sun that takes totally uncalled for cheap shots at Pam Northam, First Lady of Virginia, a woman I have known for close to 12 years. The story arises out of a tour for legislative pages of the Executive Mansion and the former kitchen located in an separate building (as all kitchens were in Southern homes built in 1813) that has been maintained in its original condition for the purpose of teaching about the history of the mansion and Virginia, both the good, the bad and the ugly.
In addition to knowing the Northams for years, I have been to the Executive Mansion many times and spent the weekend there back in July, 2018, at which time Pam Northam gave my husband and me a detailed tour of the mansion, the historic kitchen dependency and the grounds - the Governor had given us an abbreviated tour on a prior visit - during which she stressed how she was seeking to have the mansion reflect it's early history for good and for bad, including the presentation in the lady's parlor, the men's smoking room, and the original kitchen which is largely in its 1813 condition. By profession, the Fist Lady of Virginia is an educator and believes knowing and understanding accurate history is important, something I agree with heartily as a history major in college. The reality is that just because some aspects of history are not pretty or nice, doesn't mean that today's students and youths do not need to know what really happened.
I cannot help but suspect that Ms. Vozzella has (i) never met the Northams, (ii) has never visited the Executive Mansion, (iii) has never take the First Lady;s guided tour, and (iv) knows nothing of the mansion's history. Seemingly, all that mattered to Ms. Vozzella (and her editors) was stirring the pot, ginning up controversy, and hopefully promoting her own name. That's not responsible journalism. It's yellow journalism and what one would expect from the National Inquirer or Fox News. The telling lines in the piece which are NOT reflected in the least in its headline is as follows:
Northam’s office and one other parent of a child who was present said the first lady did not single out the African American students and simply handed out the cotton to a group. . . . she simply handed the cotton to whoever was nearby and wanted everyone to note the sharpness of the stems and leaves on the raw cotton, to imagine how uncomfortable it would’ve been to handle all day.
Is the Post really so desperate for page views that it is endorsing this type of squalid journalism (which of course also regurgitated past slams at Governor Northam)? If so, I know of one subscription they are about to lose. On a larger scale, I suspect that pieces like this will have the opposite effect of what Ms. Vozzella intended - other than promoting her own name, of course - which is building support for racial equality and harmony in Virginia going forward. Tawdry journalism like this will only serve to drive more whites into the Trump/white supremacist camp. Shame on Ms. Vozzella and shame on her editors.
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| Pam Northam and the 19th century original kitchen to the Executive Mansion. |
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