Like CNN, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Wash. Times failed to identify Allen defender as a Republican campaign operative

Written by Ryan Chiachiere

Published

Articles in The Washington Times and the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported assertions by Doug Jones -- a former University of Virginia football teammate of Sen. George Allen (R-VA) -- that he never heard Allen “use any racially disparaging word.” But neither article identified Jones as a member of Allen's re-election campaign.

In a September 26 “Inside Politics” column by reporter Jennifer Harper, The Washington Times noted that Sen. George Allen's (R-VA) former University of Virginia football teammate Doug Jones asserted that he never heard Allen “use any racially disparaging word” and he never “witness[ed] or hear[d] about him acting in a racially insensitive manner,” but failed to identify Jones as a member of Allen's re-election campaign and chairman of the GOP's Mount Vernon District office in Virginia. Similarly, in a September 26 Richmond Times-Dispatch article that also cited Jones's defense of Allen, staff writer Pamela Stallsmith identified Jones only as having “played on the team with Allen during the 1972 and 1973 seasons,” while ignoring Jones's role on the Allen campaign.

As Media Matters for America noted, in recent days, Jones was also quoted in a report that ran on CNN's The Situation Room and CNN Newsroom without mention of his ties to the Allen campaign.

From Harper's “Inside Politics” column in the September 26 edition of The Washington Times:

Sen. George Allen, Virginia Republican, yesterday denounced claims from Ken Shelton, a former college football teammate, that he frequently used a racial slur to refer to black people.

Mr. Shelton, who is white, works as a radiologist in North Carolina and is founder of Tobacco Free for Life, a grass-roots anti-smoking group. He also is a donor to Democratic candidates. Mr. Shelton told the online journal Salon that Mr. Allen, a former University of Virginia quarterback, used the “N-word on a regular basis” during the 1970s.

“The story and his comments and assertions in there are completely false,” Mr. Allen told Associated Press yesterday. “I don't remember ever using that word, and it is absolutely false that that was ever part of my vocabulary.”

Doug Jones, a former roommate of Mr. Shelton at Virginia, backed the lawmaker.

“I never heard George Allen use any racially disparaging word, nor did I ever witness or hear about him acting in a racially insensitive manner,” Mr. Jones said.

From Stallsmith's article in the September 26 edition of the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

The Allen campaign yesterday released statements from four other U.Va. teammates and the long-time trainer supporting the senator and rejecting Shelton's assertions.

Doug Jones, who roomed with Shelton and played on the team with Allen during the 1972 and 1973 seasons, said, “During that time I never heard George Allen use any racially disparaging word, nor did I ever witness or hear about him acting in a racially insensitive manner.”