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 in the high-income, liberal enclaves of the East End in neighborhoods like Squirrel Hill and Shadyside. (See a full breakdown of the voting results here)
Both neighborhoods were heavily Jewish, and I'm sure that the attacks from Zionists on Gainey for calling for a ceasefire in Gaza also played a role in his defeat. Indeed, some would argue that some white liberals who support Israel's attack on Gaza are the same ones who would support racist "tough-on-crime" policies.
Unfortunately, the local media sided with these attacks and blamed Gainey for the city's blight and crime problems.
"Now you're seeing (or not seeing) some of the very same power players behind the scenes who administered, orchestrated or ignored that divestment trying to wiggle their way back into our politics and convince you that a Black mayor's inability to overcome their DECADES of poor leadership in 1 term is somehow a reflection of his (and our) failure, instead of theirs," remarked Congresswoman Summer Lee on Facebook before the election." The interests and power players behind the mayoral challenge are the very same that abandoned Black Pittsburgh so thoroughly we've been ranked as one of the worst cities for Black people in the country".
Payday is proud of our work during this Mayoral election, and we will continue to do it. Big thanks to the PhiladelphiaPhiladelphia's Inquirer's Will Bunch for recognizing our work in the ugly media landscape of Western PA.
