Written for Bacon’s Rebellion by James A. Bacon
Looks like Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira is loading up the big guns to fire another salvo in his unrelenting war on Virginia Military Institute alumni who are critical of the new leadership’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion policies. This time, instead of attacking traditionalist alumni as a group, he appears to be focusing on Matt Daniel, head of The Spirit of VMI PAC, as an individual.
Shapira obviously has done a lot of digging. Since his Nov. 21 article insinuating that dissident alumni are racist for criticizing VMI’s African-American Superintendent Cedric Wins, he has published only one other article (on a topic unrelated to VMI). Three months after his last hit, the WaPo hatchet man emailed a lengthy list of questions to Daniel that hint at specific allegations the article will make.
One question, for example, sets up the VMI grad and former fighter pilot on charges of anti-Semitism for a blog post in which he criticized leftist mega-donor George Soros — not for Soros’ ethnic identity but his role bankrolling leftist causes.
Anticipating a hatchet job, The Spirit of VMI has published Shapira’s email, and you can read it here. And you can read The Spirit of VMI’s response here.
“What is obvious from the tone, type, and number of questions is that Mr. Shapira … will try to doxx and cancel another VMI Alumnus who has attempted to freely speak and react to to the corrosive actions of the Northam Administration,” said the Spirit of VMI statement. The statement continued:
SOVP will not be slowed or intimidated by weaponized journalism, and stands behind Matt Daniel, who will not be canceled. No one who knows and appreciates Matt as a man will turn away from him because of more pious virtue signaling from a would-be Beltway overlord who has no comprehension of the true VMI, or the traditional Corps who were forged into leaders and examples by the Institute’s unsurpassed ethos, traditions, and ever-challenging crucible.
Although I have been highly critical of Shapira’s reporting in the past, it is premature to comment on what he might write.
But I will say this: I have gotten to know Matt fairly well over the past couple of years. I can say confidently that he is genuinely concerned that VMI under the new regime installed by former Governor Ralph Northam is undermining the traditions — the Honor Code, the Rat Line, etc. — that made VMI a storied institution. Daniel has not uttered one word in my presence that would lend support to any insinuation that he is motivated by racial or ethnic bias. He has a different idea of what’s good for the country. He, like a majority of Americans, supports the concept of opportunity for all, not equity (or equal outcomes) for all.
Perhaps Daniel’s fears about VMI’s new direction are overblown. Perhaps he is exaggerating the degree to which VMI’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives are aligned with Critical Race Theory. Those would be valid topics for The Washington Post to explore: weighing the evidence Daniel presents against the evidence the VMI administration presents.
But Shapira has never been interested in sorting through the nuances of philosophical principles. His VMI narrative is a racial melodrama like the movie Django Unchained — with VMI traditionalists as the bad guys cracking the whips. Will Shapira’s next article follow the same trope? We’ll just have to wait and see.
