The Post's Coverage of The Virginia Blogosphere [updated]

The Washington Post does a pretty great job of covering Loudoun County, and has reached out to at least try to understand the Virginia blogosphere, but it is articles like this that show the Post as a long way to go to cover some aspects of Virginia politics as well as it covers inside-the-beltway machinations.

"Do Byrne, Feder Stand a Chance"
...
But the results in the 1st District should force Democrats to think long and hard about their prospects.

The 10th and 11th districts are less Republican than the 1st, according to the partisan index in the Almanac of American Politics, but both were drawn by a GOP-controlled General Assembly and are favorable to Republicans.

A growing population has meant that more Democrats and independents have moved into both districts in recent years. But Republicans still have an overall advantage in both districts, according to the index. - The Washington Post

Lowell does the job or refuting the basic points made in the article.

For the 10th District, all indicators - and current evidence - are to the contrary of the Post article's main thesis. The majority of votes in supervisor districts in the 10th Congressional District are being cast by Democrats, trends in the 10th District are towards Democrats, and the policies advocated by Democrats are more resonant with voters every day. Further evidence of the strength of Democrats in the 10th is the fact that we will be having a primary to see who gets to take on Frank Wolf in November.

The Post may be forward-thinking in its coverage of Loudoun, but it is running a few years behind the curve in it's coverage of Virginia Politics by using an outdated almanac as its source for the relative strength and weaknesses of the local parties here.

[update] Not Larry Sabato has a further explanation thanks to a neighboring Prince William blog.

Wow. If blogs are considered "competition" for the Post (I have never considered myself that, but if they try to kill NLS, I guess it is now becoming competitive) then this type of behavior could run afoul of monopoly laws. Simply put, a Washington Post reporter threatening to skew the coverage of their reporting based on whether or not a blogger has the story also is unacceptable. - Not Larry Sabato

Interestinger and interestinger.