Last night the TV media reports were uniformly misleading on the topic of the very close Doug Jones vs Roy Moore Senate race in Alabama. I feel that I have a good understanding of the practice and methods of journalism. Objective journalism is something I support. Though not balanced journalism. Balanced journalism is when we give Timon and Pumbaa equal time on explaining what stars are.

Timon: Fireflies that got stuck up in the big bluish-black thing.

Pumbaa: …balls of gas burning billions of miles away.

I think the problem may be the Timonization of our society. Americans are always looking on the bright side! Putting on a game face! Trying harder! Saying the cup is half full! Making up alternate facts! Cynics are mistrusted haters. Even though jobs with benefits are hard to find, college degrees less and less useful, poverty increasing, health care elusive, and politicians and corporations using big shovels to move money from the 99% to the 1%, the zeitgeist demands a chin-up mentality.

That may be why so many pundits last night were touting a victory for respect, a lesson for Republicans, an inclusive message for our country. Alabamians, it was said, rejected hate.

Wrong. Approximately 74% of white men and 58% of white women voted for Moore, as did 91% of Republicans, most of whom I imagine are white. So white Alabamians are strongly supportive of a candidate who thinks slavery was a great thing for our country, homosexuality should be illegal, and dating a teen when you are twenty years older is ok if her mom agrees. Not to mention assaulting her.

98% of Democrats and 96% of blacks, which I imagine is almost the same pool, voted for Jones, as did 51% of Independents. Many blacks in Alabama had lost their right to vote previously due to voter ID laws punishing people without both free time and access to cars on weekdays. During this very vote, some received texts with misleading info about voting locations, while others found their status changed to Inactive when they arrived at the polls. Still, with overwhelming numbers they managed to carry the day. Jones was savvy, campaigning with black leaders in black neighborhoods, unlike Jon Ossoff in Georgia last summer.

Blacks did the heavy lifting for Democrats in Virginia recently as well, despite similar institutional barricades. So why don’t Dems condemn racial inequality and fight voter ID laws? Timon might say they are circus clowns stuck in a really tiny car. I’ll let the reader decide what Pumbaa would say.