Glamour Shots journalism and the 2026 US Senate race
2026 is shaping up to be a big political news year. Among other things, we’ve got an open US Senate seat. We also have a major primary challenge to the de facto leader of the GOP establishment in Raleigh. It’s too bad that the smouldering remnants of our dwindling drive-by media are standing ready to serve us up more of the same old shiite.
Over at WRAL, they no longer have Travis Fain or Laura Leslie. Fain has ridden off into the sunset to start behaving as — what we’ve long known — a left-wing operative. Leslie — who gained national notoriety for blaming a mass shooting at a Florida gay nightclub on religious right activists in North Carolina — has gone off to work with fellow WRAL alum and leftist crank Chris Fitzsimon.
So, who, um, *replaces* these two media giants? Well, in the best example of worst ROI since McClatchy bought The N&O from the Daniels clan, WRAL has lured AndyPaul Specht and Will Doran over from the sparsely-populated N&O newsroom. Since that move, Specht and Doran have made quite a name for themselves re-tweeting leftist talking points and “fact-checking” conservative / Republican statements against said leftist talking points / propaganda.
So, it doesn’t look good for us getting much useful this year out of the legacy drive-by media.
In the 2024 campaign for governor, the plan for the drive-bys and the Raleigh left was to pretend there was no GOP primary and allow Mark Robinson to make it into the general election. Balanced Nutrition was ignored. And so were Robinson’s web browsing habits – which were not much of a secret around state political circles — until after the primary. You know, when it would be too late for the GOP to make a change.
This year, Michael Whatley appears to be the new Mark Robinson. 
The media is repeating unchallenged Whatley’s lie that he was Trump’s top choice for the Senate seat. National media reported on Trump asking four GOP congressman from North Carolina if they were interested in running for the seat with his support. Apparently, none of them accepted.
We also got a lot of reporting about Lara Trump eyeing a run for Senate. After it became clear she was not going to run, we heard about Whatley. So, as far as we know, Michael Whatley was no better than Trump’s SIXTH CHOICE to run for the US Senate in North Carolina.
Also being ignored are the recent findings by Harper Polling. Some drive-bys are spinning that poll as proof Donald Trump’s popularity is sinking in North Carolina. The real story on that polling is that, in spite of all of Whatley’s logistical and financial advantages, he is falling further behind presumptive Democrat nominee Roy Cooper. Also, for some reason, Harper polled a general matchup between Republican Don Brown — who the media, the state GOP, and Whatley have been ignoring — and Roy Cooper. Brown — with a shoestring campaign operation – is running about as well as Whatley, with all his name ID, monetary and logistical resources, is against Cooper.
Soooooo – everyone who repeats that crap that Whatley is the best shot at beating Cooper and holding the Senate seat for Republicans needs to be flogged for absolute lying.
I know I’m being hard on these current practitioners of my former profession. But I do have some brownie points for N&O scribbler – and possessor of one of the best drive-by names – Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi. In her piece on Whatley showing up to file, she managed to cite and link to THE GOLD STANDARD OF NORTH CAROLINA POLITICAL REPORTING.
The N&O and WRAL both got in a real cheap shot at Don Brown, who has been campaigning for US Senate since about March of this year. Both outlets have been pretty well ignoring him until today. He’s got a website and a full array of social media sites. He’s even advertised and appeared on all kinds of podcasts. He’s campaigned personally in three-quarters of the state’s counties. But both outlets managed to lump him in as an also-ran with someone named Elizabeth Temple — who showed up for the first time today to pay her filing fee and sign up so she can later tell her grandchildren she is a “former US Senate candidate.”
Drive-bys need to understand: Their job is not to be king-makers. Their job is to give the viewers and readers as much pertinent info as possible so they can make informed choices on Election Day. There is way too much repeating of spin going on.
Let us not forget WRDU (106.1 FM), aka Rush Radio, in the list of fake news purveyors on the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina. During the afternoon broadcasts on Dec 3rd, Kyle Wilson repeated a very premature statement that Whatley and Cooper would be matched up in November 2026, He failed to mention the March 3, 2026 primary, or that Whatley has two primary competitors already and that more could emerge.
News reports like this shape public opinion. Essentially, this is the same tactic used by the Carolina Journal and North State Journal in elevating Whatley and Cooper as contestants while conveniently excluding mentions of Don Brown or others in their reporting on the senate race. This media behavior is not by accident; rather, the producers and editors know full well their crafted messaging suggests that readers ignore or discount other contestants they choose not to cover. While conservatives typically recognize and label the leftist bias of the legacy media as baseless and fake reporting, rarely are we as critical about our so-called conservative media sources. It’s high time we expose the biases we detect from all media outlets and properly educate the readers and listeners.