A Democrat with a racist past? That fact might be too far from the mainstream line for CNN, so they labeled Virginia Governor Ralph Northam a ‘Republican’ when reporting on his apology for a past racist photo.
Northam is under pressure from both Democrats and Republicans to resign after admitting that he is one of two men that appeared in an old photograph, one in blackface and the other dressed in a KKK robe.
He apologized for the photo, unearthed from a 1984 school yearbook this week, saying that it did not reflect the person he is today, and promised to work to regain the public’s trust, but did not indicate any intention to leave office.
When the story was covered on Anderson Cooper’s show on CNN Friday night, the governor’s name was labeled with the letter ‘R’ – which stands for ‘Republican’.
The network, which has been in bitter conflict with President Donald Trump – who often refers to CNN as ‘fake news’ – apologized for the mistake after being torched on social media.
The photo of Northam was first published by conservative news outlet Big League Politics, but was soon authenticated by the Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk, the state’s largest daily newspaper.
Northam won a tight gubernatorial race in 2017 over Republican contender Ed Gillespie, who he accused of racism and bigotry for supporting Trump’s immigration reform agenda.
Now that the old picture has surfaced, several journalists wondered how the mainstream media had not dug up the image earlier, given all the attention they dedicated to the Virginia election, and Gillespie’s campaign, when it came to doing opposition research.
Past actions conveying racism typically cost public officials their jobs. Just last week, Florida Secretary of State Michael Ertel, a Republican, resigned in disgrace after photos of him mocking Hurricane Katrina survivors by wearing blackface and drag in 2005 were posted online.
A Republican county official in Pennsylvania, Carla Maloney, resigned last year due to past social media posts in which she compared kneeling NFL players to “baboons.”
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