Opinion: For The Post, a Supreme black eye

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Opinion | For The Post, a Supreme black eye
Deference to Justice Alito hands a scoop to the New York Times.

By Erik Wemple
Media critic

June 5, 2024 at 7:15 a.m. EDT

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A flagpole outside the Alexandria home of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on May 17. (Justin Jouvenal/The Washington Post)

It’s one thing to get scooped when your competitors bust their humps. Or when they catch a lucky break one way or another. It’s quite another thing to get scooped when the story has sat in your notebook for 3½ years. ... And then it goes viral.

This very scenario played out in recent weeks for The Post, which has sat back and watched the New York Times nail down a precious exclusive whose epicenter is a leisurely drive from its K Street newsroom. Under the byline of Jodi Kantor, the New York Times reported on May 16 that an upside-down American flag — a symbol popular among pro-Donald Trump election deniers — flew from the pole at the Alito residence after the Jan. 6 Capitol riots — a story with ongoing political and judicial implications. Nine days later, The Post disclosed that then-Supreme Court reporter Robert Barnes, who has since retired from The Post, had arrived at the justice’s residence on Jan. 20, 2021, just as the Alitos were leaving home. He spoke to Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and his wife, Martha-Ann Alito, about the flag.

The Post, however, declined to proceed with the story, which had come to the newspaper through its anonymous tip line. ... Thus far, The Post has put forth this explanation, as reflected in its May 25 story about Barnes’s visit to Alexandria:

The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said.

It’s pretty clear now. As noted in Kantor’s reporting, Emily Baden, an actor and restaurant server, moved in with her mother in 2020 along with her boyfriend (now husband) down the street from the Alitos. After Joe Biden was declared winner of the November 2020 election, the couple displayed a sign that used Trump’s name alongside an expletive and another saying, “BYE DON.” Another pair of signs — “Trump Is a Fascist” and “You Are Complicit” — went up after the Jan. 6 riots. The signs helped to ignite some unpleasant verbal encounters between Martha-Ann Alito and Baden. In a statement, Justice Alito claims, “I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor’s use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs.”

{snip}

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Opinion by Erik Wemple
Erik Wemple, The Washington Post's media critic, focuses on the cable-news industry. Twitter https://twitter.com/ErikWemple

[Lonestarblue]

1. The Post was and is largely pro-Republican. The days of Woodward and Bernstein are long gone.