PITTSBURGH, PA - Earlier today, the state's largest newspaper, Philly Inquirer's top columnist, Will Bunch, cited Payday's coverage of the race-baiting that led to the defeat of Pittsburgh's first Black Mayor, Ed Gainey, in his column entitled "George Floyd's 2020 murder promised a 'racial reckoning.' Instead, we got Trump".
It's a shame that it takes a media outlet on the other end of the state in Philadelphia to call out the "race-baiting" in Pittsburgh's media that went on unchallenged.
The local corporate media repeatedly ran Corey O'Connor's false claim that crime had gone up under Gainey. Most of these local reporters had come up as local crime reporters, and they knew the old local corporate media saying, "If it bleeds, it leads."
Gainey's supporters repeatedly shot back that homicides and nonfatal shootings had actually dropped by more than 1/3 due to Gainey's use of more community-based violence prevention programs.
The race-baiting was as clear as a bell to anyone here in Pittsburgh. Or as clear as a "dog whistle," as Pittsburgh's first Black Congresswoman, Summer Lee, remarked.
The local media largely ignored accusations that O'Connor was engaged in race-baiting, even when said by people like the city's Congresswoman.
As a result, Gainey lost by a mere 3,300 votes to a candidate heavily backed by developers and even some union busters.
Even more ugly was that while Gainey increased his vote total from 2021 in white working-class parts of the city, he bled votes...
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