The Washington Post is marking the last hours of Ralph Northam’s governorship with a puff piece that would make most ideologues blush.
The article, penned by reporter Gregory Schneider, called Northam a “wounded healer” who found a “new political footing” after a blackface scandal and became Virginia’s “most consequential” governor in modern times.
“A wounded healer”: Ralph Northam wraps up extraordinary term in office, forged by scandal into a governor of lasting consequence https://t.co/nTEom0KXnX
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 9, 2022
Fox News continues:
The scandal erupted in Feb. 2019 when a medical school yearbook photo from Eastern Virginia Medical School, Northam’s alma mater, resurfaced, showing a person dressed in blackface and standing next to another individual dressed like a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Northam quickly apologized for the photo but later denied he was one of the people in it as he stood firm against widespread calls to resign. That included prominent Democrats running for president and former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who later praised him during his losing bid for the governorship in 2021.
“Northam’s rebirth is as unlikely a story as any you might find in today’s polarized world of instant cancellation,” he added. “It was driven partly by an extraordinary effort to connect with Black constituents across Virginia, a process that Northam says broke him down and built him back a better person — more aware of the ugly reality of race in America.”
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Schneider then appeared to paint the scandal as a positive thing, citing multiple people who thought that if it never occurred, Northam wouldn’t have been as effective a leader.
The Washington Post initially demanded Northam’s resignation over the blackface scandal as well, but the editorial board later said the paper was “wrong” for doing so.