Media top headlines May 11
Martha MacCallum pressing a teachers union president over critical race theory and more round out today's top media headlines
In an analysis piece published Monday, The Washington Post railed against losing Republican candidates for "not taking the L," and blaming their losses on election fraud, all while failing to mention a well-known Democratic offender: Stacey Abrams.
Post writer Philip Bump focused his criticism on Republicans for, what he claimed was, falling prey to a "substantial industry predicated on claiming that voting results are suspect."
But he omitted Abrams, who famously refused to concede the race to Republican Brian Kemp following days of counting absentee and provisional ballots. She wound up losing by nearly 55,000 votes, a tight race overall but a clear defeat.
"I acknowledge that former Secretary of State Brian Kemp will be certified as the victor in the 2018 gubernatorial election. But to watch an elected official – who claims to represent the people in this state, baldly pin his hopes for election on the suppression of the people’s democratic right to vote – has been truly appalling," Abrams said in a speech to her supporters following the vote counting. "So let's be clear, this is not a speech of concession."
Months later, Abrams doubled down in a speech to the National Action Network saying, "Despite the final tally and the inauguration [of Kemp] and the situation we find ourselves in, I do have a very affirmative statement to make: We won."
Bump began by praising Democrats for "upholding confidence in the system," citing former Rep. Rita Hart's, D-Iowa., decision earlier this year not to continue challenging her six-vote election loss in the race for Iowa's 2nd Congressional District.
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Following his praise of Hart, Bump suggested a correlation between the losing Republican candidates and contestants on the early episodes of each season of the reality TV show "American Idol," in which "subpar" singers are rejected from the competition, but insist that they're actually talented and the judges passing them up are wrong.
Bump went on to list various instances, aside from former President Donald Trump, that he claimed Republicans ignored the pejorative of "taking the L," including a Texas city-council candidate who lost her race by 30 points, recent vote recounts in Arizona, Virginia gubernatorial candidates recently questioning the nomination process, a Senate candidate in Massachusetts alleging fraud, and former Maryland congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik's allegations of voter irregularities.
"At some point out, you just have to take the 'L.' Particularly when not doing so means leveraging dubious or unfounded claims in order to undermine confidence in American democracy," Bump concluded.
Abrams has enjoyed highly positive media coverage during her successful efforts to turn Georgia blue, as President Biden became the first Democrat to win the state in a presidential election since 1992.
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Washington Post Magazine profiled her last year in a widely panned piece that included a smoky silhouette of Abrams wearing a cape and striking a pose that resembles a superhero.
Fox News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.