Pathetic: WashPost Hails 100 Anti-Redskins Leftists Protesting As a 'Significant Moment'

Tim Graham
December 29th, 2014 11:42 AM
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If Tea Party activists staged a repeal-Obamacare rally and about 100 people showed up, would The Washington Post consider it newsworthy? If they did, it might be to suggest their crusade was drying up.

But on Monday morning, the Post treated about 100 protesters of the Washington Redskins name as an achievement, a “significant moment,” as local reporter John Woodrow Cox lovingly chronicled the badly attended event on Twitter. (No one apparently took exception to his middle name matching a racist president.)

Over a large color photo on the front of the Metro section, the Post ran this quote from activist Gregg Deal: “The purpose of stereotypes is to dehumanize indigenous people.” Cox began his story:

In a year marked by significant moments for opponents of the Washington Redskins mascot, they achieved yet another one on Sunday, this time outside the 79,000-seat cathedral at which the name is most revered and its change most resisted: FedEx Field.

More than 100 activists chanted, marched and waved signs on church property about one-third of a mile east of the stadium. Although the gathering drew less than half the crowd organizers had hoped for, it represented the largest protest of the name that took place at a home game.

This is a little like celebrating the largest vote-getter for the Green Party. An editor who wasn’t thinking politically  might tell the cub reporter to go find a more “significant moment” to define as the “news” of the day.

Cox failed to include how this "significant moment" of protest matches the polls: only 14 percent support a name change.

Here are Cox's tweets, displaying how insignificant this all looked:

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