Mean-spirited reporting

If there’s anything worse than a mean-spirited spoilsport, it’s a mean-spirited spoilsport who apparently doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about. That was the case a couple of weeks back with The Washington Post. On attitude alone, the Post deserves a grade of no better than C- for a story it did about WORLD’s hometown of Asheville, N.C. And the story offered sorry coverage of the basic facts of the case.

You folks who live in the other 49 states (or overseas) may have other important things to concern you this week. But I urge you not to ignore the “battle of the bathroom bill” we’ve been waging and watching here in North Carolina. It could all come home to haunt you as well.

This all started this past March when North Carolina’s largely conservative legislature and moderate governor enacted House Bill 2. To be sure, HB2 meant that persons with varied gender “identities” would have to think twice about which public restrooms they’re inclined to use. But clearly, the measure’s main goal was to preserve the integrity of the signage and usage of public restrooms. People using such facilities, the law said, must use the space corresponding to the sex—male or female—indicated on that person’s birth certificate. The new law was aimed fully as much—and maybe more—at nontransgender people who might take advantage of ambiguously labeled restrooms.

The evidence so luridly implied by The Washington Post simply doesn’t fit the realities those of us who live in Asheville sense are true.

But the measure’s main goal was immediately interpreted and publicly portrayed by homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, etc., as a restraint on their liberties. Joining them in that protest were the mainstream media, academia, mainline churches, and—perhaps most significant—some leaders in business and travel. Major corporations (like PayPal) as well as huge sporting groups (like the NBA and the NCAA) threatened to halt business in North Carolina—and some did. A manager with a major out-of-state corporation told me that plans for at least three major facilities in North Carolina have been permanently scrubbed. A loudly promoted boycott against anyone doing business in North Carolina has been in effect for the last four months.

So is the boycott working? Is the economic squeeze having its desired effect? Have North Carolina’s lawmakers been shaken enough to prompt them to rescind HB2? Any data suggesting the answer might be “no” would, of course, be an inadmissible admission. Which is where The Washington Post enters the picture. The boycott sponsors and organizers obviously needed help.

In a June 28 story headlined, “How North Carolina’s idyllic hipster haven is being hurt by the ‘bathroom bill’ boycott,” the Post offered 1,630 words of suggestion that the economic sanctions are doing just fine, thank you. Business is off throughout Asheville, and severely so at Malaprop’s, a popular downtown bookstore—chosen as a symbol for the dollar depression supposedly at work throughout the city and state.

Problem is, the evidence so luridly implied by the Post simply doesn’t fit the realities those of us who live in Asheville sense are true. The streets are full, and 30-minute wait times for dinner in one of our 256 independent restaurants are not uncommon. Seven new hotels are under construction, and plans for yet another were announced last week.

For some reason, the Post apparently didn’t talk to any of the merchants WORLD’s Sandy Barwick talked to (see the results of her informal, two-day survey). Most fascinating is the Post’s failure to interview anyone at Biltmore Estate, who would have told the newspaper that things are pretty normal, with visitors streaming through in numbers likely to match the 1 million folks who came last year. Why ignore the business that is probably Asheville’s most accurate economic indicator—unless you have a point to make?

Employing that kind of journalism, The Washington Post has used its huge influence to try to persuade tens of thousands of readers that the LGBT community must be obeyed. But it’s a dishonest way to deal with readers. If the news the Post reports from the nation’s capital is based on this same kind of sloppy and selective gathering of data, I’m sure glad WORLD has its own reporters in Washington working every day to find out what’s really going on.

Email jbelz@wng.org