Chesterfield reporter Vanessa Remmers announced her resignation from Virginia’s paper of record today, over a political cartoon that belittled women who allege sexual assault.
https://twitter.com/VRemmers12/status/1043132960470429697
The latest offensive cartoon from the Richmond Times-Dispatch compares Brett Kavanaugh, President Trump’s embattled Supreme Court nominee, to the Duke Lacrosse players accused of sexual assault. On Twitter, Remmers wrote:
“I am a sexual assault survivor. The @RTDOpinions cartoon is harmful to the 1 in 3 women who experience sexual violence & shows why women fear speaking up. News & opinions are separate departments. But these are facts. That being said, today is my last day at the RTD.”
The Times-Dispatch lost several employees to the new Virginia Mercury outlet, and has been the subject of criticism over its editorial board. In the middle of a city that leans heavily Democratic, the editorial board has telegraphed increasingly conservative positions; it was one of the few in the nation that didn’t endorse Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, and recently ran a cartoon that even Mayor Levar Stoney criticized for mocking immigrant children.
