The Washington Post published a lengthy news article on President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court nomination process in which the outlet claimed Justice Clarence Thomas’s previous rulings “often resemble the thinking of White conservatives,” subsequently editing the line on Thursday.
“A previous version of this story imprecisely referred to Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinions as often reflecting the thinking of White conservatives, rather than conservatives broadly. That reference has been removed,” according to a “clarification” notice at the top of the article.
The article published on Wednesday focused on House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn’s role in recommending a Supreme Court justice to succeed retiring Justice Stephen Breyer, homing on the South Carolina Democrat’s recommendation of J. Michelle Childs, a black federal judge in South Carolina who is a contender for Biden’s nomination.
The following is a quote from the Washington Post article before the Thursday correction and includes a statement from Congressional Black Caucus member Bennie Thompson.
“‘Nobody that I’m aware of feels that opposing Clyburn’s nomination would be the wise thing to do,’ he said. ‘If you know that a person has been vetted by Jim Clyburn, you know that person won’t go to the court and end up being a Clarence Thomas,’ referring to the Black justice whose rulings often resemble the thinking of White conservatives,” the article previously said.
The report was changed Thursday afternoon to say: “referring to the Black conservative justice,” rather than the previous statement likening to justice’s thought process to “White conservatives.”
The Washington Post report was rebuked by conservative and libertarian-leaning media outlets, including the National Review and Reason, which highlighted examples of left-wing bias against the black justice who was nominated by former President George H. W. Bush in 1991.
Jeff Jacoby, a conservative op-ed writer for the Boston Globe, tweeted that Washington Post reporters Cleve Wootson Jr. and Marianna Sotomayor “snidely identified” Thomas in the report, asking, “Why don’t they just call him an Uncle Tom?”
The Washington Examiner contacted Wootson but did not receive a response.
