WaPo Can't Be Bothered to Read Things Like "Polls"

As Lowell details at Blue Virginia, there are many many many things wrong with today's Washington Post article on Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA). But I'll focus on just one:

By all rights, Tom Perriello should have almost no chance to win reelection to Congress. He's a stimulus-backing, health-care-reform-loving, cap-and-trade-supporting liberal Democrat who represents a conservative central Virginia district where antipathy to the president and all things Washington runs high.

So according to the Washington Post, whatever the GOP says must be true. There's just one problem: Rep. Perriello's constituents disagree with the Republican talking points. The Washington Post could have found this out for itself with a simple Google search. From September:

Politico has just published the results of a new poll indicating that - in spite of the teabaggers - citizens of Rep. Tom Perriello's district (the 5th) support cap and trade legislation by a 17-point (42%-25%) margin.

But these days, the Washington Post doesn't seem to have any interest in challenging Republican talking points on clean energy & climate legislation -- or on anything else for that matter.

In a related story, check out The New Republic's must-read article, Post Apocalypse: Inside the messy collapse of a great newspaper.