What the Washington Post reports — and doesn’t — about child porn arrests
Timothy P. Carney
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The Washington Post has two stories today about the recent child pornography arrest of Patrick Wojahn, the mayor of College Park, Maryland — one is an Associated Press story, and the other is written by a local reporter.
Neither of them mentions that Wojahn is a Democrat. But that’s just the beginning.
MARYLAND DEMOCRATIC MAYOR ARRESTED ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES
The Associated Press story comments that Wojhan “has worked in legal advocacy and government relations” but notably does not explain what kind of legal advocacy or government relations he did.
Specifically, Wojahn was the chairman of the board of the gay rights group Equality Maryland, an honorary member of the Lavender Leadership Honor Society, and was regularly identified as a “gay activist” in the press.
This career of activism appears nowhere in either of the Washington Post’s story on the arrest.
Is it relevant, you might ask? Well, according to the Washington Post’s general practice, the political activism of child pornography arrestees is very relevant — at least if that activism is conservative or rooted in traditional religion.
Check out these past Washington Post stories:
Here’s the first sentence of a 2003 article: “Republican activist Richard A. Delgaudio, a longtime Northern Virginia-based fundraiser for conservative causes and personalities, was sentenced to two years’ probation yesterday after pleading guilty to a child pornography charge.” Later the article says, “Delgaudio, 50, heads an array of conservative activist groups from offices in Fairfax County.”
When it was a Republican staffer arrested on child pornography charges in 2021, the Washington Post included the word “Republican” six times and “GOP” another three times. The Washington Post also mentioned he “was involved in several antiabortion rights organizations before his work in government.”
That pre-government activism is exactly the sort of thing the Washington Post could have reported about Wojahn but didn’t.
The accused’s views on gay relationships were relevant to the Washington Post on past occasions: “A Kentucky school principal who became infamous for his efforts to ban books with ‘homosexual content’ from classrooms has been indicted on child pornography charges.”
But then, when it’s a left-wing culture war activist, the Washington Post apparently decides his left-wing culture warring isn’t relevant.
It’s not just Wojahn. Scott Swirling was quoted repeatedly in the Washington Post when he was lobbying on behalf of Planned Parenthood and other family-planning and abortion groups.
When Swirling, the former executive director of the National Family Planning & Reproductive Health Association, was arrested in 2013 for arranging sex with a 12-year-old girl, the Washington Post didn’t cover it all as far as I can tell.
This looks like a pure double standard: The Washington Post links child pornography arrests to conservative politics but refuses to even mention the politics of left-wing activists when they are arrested on child pornography charges.