Report: The Politically Incestuous Relationship Between North Carolina Dems and the Local Media Continues

You know, writing about how the mainstream media and Democrats are - metaphorically speaking - in bed with each other politically is a lot like a dog bites man story.

It's pretty much an open secret that's not really even a secret anymore, even though the denials and whataboutisms are free-flowing and plentiful from press figures who are desperate to gaslight readers and viewers into thinking they are Serious Journalists™ whose reporting you can believe and respect, and which they claim is free of any taint of bias.

But sometimes the examples are so egregiously offensive and insulting that they have to be called out if for no other reason than to document it for the record in the public interest and for future reference ahead of the next (inevitable) time it happens.

The latest example comes from my beloved home state of North Carolina, where a recent revelation reaffirmed that the politically incestuous relationship between the state's Democrat movers and shakers and the local press, in particular those who cover the goings on in the state's capitol of Raleigh, is alive and well.

Democrat Josh Stein, a former state senator, was North Carolina's Attorney General for eight years and ran against Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R) for the governor's seat. Due in part to the questions surrounding the September CNN report that alleged Robinson made numerous controversial posts on a pornography website between 2008 and 2012 (claims that Robinson has filed a lawsuit over), Stein won on Election Day.

Naturally, when one wins a gubernatorial election, you would expect them to begin the process of putting a transition team together, which is what Stein's people have done. But one of them in particular sparked some double takes:

The document obtained by Anderson Alerts lays out the detailed makeup of Stein’s transition teams, which stands to shape the policy direction of the state for years to come.
[...]
Michael Goodmon, executive vice president for the Capitol Broadcasting Company (parent company of WRAL and the Durham Bulls), has an important seat at the table on the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources transition team. He is the son of CEO Jim Goodmon and brother of the company’s president, Jimmy Goodmon. Michael Goodmon isn’t on the news division side of things, however, as he leads the company’s real estate and baseball divisions. But a member of the Goodmon family having a role in helping fill out Stein’s administration is still very notable.

Yeah. That's... kind of an understatement, to say the least.

The Goodmons including Michael regularly contribute thousands to Democrat Party candidates here in North Carolina and are very public advocates for the Democrat agenda, using their various platforms (including print and broadcast media) to get that message across.

According to Open Secrets, Capitol Broadcasting individual members and employees themselves have donated tens of thousands, mostly to Democrat candidates, over the last several decades, which appears to confirm that the apple does not fall far from the tree, so to speak.

Cases in point:

Another example of the corrupt, partisan mess that is the #NCPOL media. We're in the middle of a recount in a very close Supreme Court race, yet @WRAL has declared that the Democrat "won." But the race hasn't been called nor certified. #misinformation https://t.co/FZEXjrHtrr pic.twitter.com/hDdwmL3usL
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) November 22, 2024

Only in #NCPOL world would $252 million be considered "very little actual money." #NCGA https://t.co/itlbkygsz7
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) November 26, 2024

And it's not just Capitol Broadcasting/WRAL. The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News and Observer are just as bad about carrying water for state Democrats, with one of the more outrageous instances being how one of the N&O's (now-former) reporters essentially admitted in 2014 to burying a story that was damaging to then-Sen. Kay Hagan (D) and her reelection campaign:

WOW: N&O writes they knew 2 wks ago Hagan skipped ISIS briefing for fundraiser.Why didn't they report it then? #ncsen pic.twitter.com/rpOlK44Bjc
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) October 9, 2014

They didn't say who the "and others" were but we can safely assume it was others in the NC political press corps who also sat on it.

Last but not least, there is this example from the Charlotte Observer editorial page, which took this editorial position on so-called "transgender rights" and hot topics like "bathroom bills" and allowed it to color their "straight news" coverage of these same issues:

You've outdone yourself with this gem, Charlotte Observer. https://t.co/dNUJteCl2Z #ncpol #hb2 #WarOnWomen pic.twitter.com/0UXcpT1uZ1
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) May 15, 2016

I could go on and on but I think the point has been made.

The bottom line here is that pretty much anytime you see a political story out of North Carolina that was published by a legacy media outlet, or social media posts that come from their reporters, take all of it with a grain of salt. Because, in my experience, chances are that there's more to the story than meets the eye - and to why it was written in the first place.