Forgive me, but on reading your piece I had to laugh. After a summer of stories about anti-healthcare reform quotes from conservatives repeated ad nauseam, after the unbelievable coverage of 'their day' on the mall, to say that they don't receive 'coverage' is absurd. I don't remember that much coverage of other 'marches' or whatever. The Post did have a few stories about the need for reform lately but it is too late as the repeated negatives are set in peoples' minds now. One has to wonder what the situation would be if the Post had devoted as much space/time to examples of people without healthcare as to the anti group. Isn't that more substance than just wild quotes? Where were the indepth pieces on why 45,000 people die each year because they don't have insurance? Where were the stories of 100,000 people dying each year because of medical errors? Where were the stories of a majority of physicians and nurses wanting a public option? If these stories had been repeated as often as the negative anti-reform pieces, people would understand why the push to reform the system.
Regarding Van Jones, did the Post draw attention to the contradiction in the conservative push to get Van Jones because of past activities resulting in his resignation but the pushback against considering candidate McDonnell's past activities as being important, let alone his withdrawing?
Last week there were several articles about candidate Deeds - all negative. The front page article had leads to other articles in the paper with the leads themselves being negative. It wasn't until near the end that it was acknowledged that some business people had doubts about McDonnell. Where was the question about what the 'net' benefit over 10 years of selling the liquor stores would be and what that would buy in transportation? Where does McDonnell think he can put toll roads in Northern Virginia? McDonnell doesn't think he will have to take funds from education because the economy will grow - huh? The Republicans hit Kaine hard on having a 'rosy' outlook.
I have always loved the Post as a paper of record. It is with dismay that I see what it has become. I used to spend several hours reading Outlook because it had really solid pieces on substance not just the 'politics'; now I don't spend more than 10 minutes. I'm not sure how long I'll feel like subsidizing the Post web site as it gets news that doesn't appear in print and it's free. Now there's an idea for an article on the changing news picture - base it on the 'tragedy of the commons' as found in development literature.
Sincerely,