JohnEdmiston

What the @RTDNEWS and @luca_a_powell published today is everything Virginians despise about the liberal media. Instead of waiting 24 hours for a response from VADOC confirming that Tabias McClain benefitted from Virginia’s early felon release program, the Richmond Times-Dispatch — a @LeeEntNews outlet — rushed to jam their facts into a false narrative. Worse, even after learning their reporting was wrong, they’ve refused to retract the article. The facts speak for themselves. The RTD claims that McClain was not the beneficiary of early release; VDOC clearly states otherwise. We have the receipts. This wasn’t an honest mistake — it was a smear built on falsehoods. A deliberate choice to push a fabricated narrative, fed to a reporter who not only refuses to understand the law but also to wait for facts. It’s a blatant insult to every Virginian who expects honesty and integrity from their news sources. The facts are clear. The record is clear.  Luca Powell and the Richmond Times-Dispatch ignored both because the facts didn’t fit the RTD’s fiction. They chose to participate in politically-driven narratives rather than fact-driven journalism. This isn’t reporting — it is advocacy, and it is bad advocacy at that. The Richmond Times-Dispatch owes the public the truth through a full retraction and public apology. Until they take responsibility for this reckless, insulting, and unethical failure, every word they print should be treated for what it is: propaganda, not news.  Unfortunately, this is the second time this year that members of the Virginia press corps have gone out of their way to manufacture lies repeated by the same small collection of politically driven activists.  Political hitmen exist, but they should never deserve the title of journalist. For people to trust institutions, they have to be worthy of our trust.  Today, Luca Powell put the RTD editors in a position to cash that trust out.