Sometimes in this business of media analysis, you just have to shake your head in disbelief.
Today’s “WTF” moment comes courtesy of the following CNN Politics headline:
Trump wants GOP to court black voters — then slams voting rights for felons
You read that one right.
{mosads}First off, before getting to the obvious criticism on this one: The headline above is not for an editorial/opinion piece, but rather what is supposed to be a standard, non-partisan, just-the-facts-ma’am news story.
But, in attempting to slam Trump for being racist and/or hypocritical for having the audacity of taking a position on ex-felons not being allowed to vote, after openly courting the black vote, the authors — Ashley Killough and Karl de Vries — inadvertently make themselves look that way instead. Because almost any lucid person seeing such a headline would come to the same conclusion:
That “blacks” are somehow synonymous with “felons.”
Is Trump’s perspective on ex-felons voting completely out of step with the American people, and therefore needs to be called out? Not at all.
The most recent poll on the subject of ex-felons having the right to vote has 54 percent support via a YouGov survey in April. That’s obviously not an overwhelming majority, but a sliver more than half.
In a related story, the Supreme Court agrees with Trump.
The CNN story goes on to question Trump’s criticism of Virginia Governor (and close Clinton ally) Terry McAuliffe, who intends to override via executive order a recent Supreme Court ruling that struck down his original order earlier this year to allow some felons in his state to vote.
All told, per the CNN story, McAuliffe’s goal is to allow up to 200,000 felons to vote.
In a related story, President Obama won the state of Virginia by less than 200,000 votes in 2012.
“Hillary Clinton is banking on her friend Terry McAuliffe on getting thousands of violent felons to the voting booths in an effort to cancel out votes of both law enforcement and crime victims,” Trump said at a Virginia rally. “They are letting people vote in your Virginia election that should not be allowed to vote. Sad. Very sad.”
And your headline?
Trump wants GOP to court black voters — then slams voting rights for felons.
Boy, that racist GOP nominee sure did contradict himself on this one, didn’t he?
Until he didn’t…
And in yet another related item, the writers of said story are both white.
If this is the racial prism they see the country through, it might be time to look into some adult classes on self-awareness.
Sometimes in this business, you just have to shake your head.
Concha is a media reporter for The Hill.
The views expressed by Contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.