Style
A tip from a ‘concerned citizen’ helps a reporter land the scoop of a lifetime

By Paul Farhi
February 3 at 9:43 AM

The reporter who exposed Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s racist yearbook photo said a “concerned citizen” led him to the story that has prompted widespread outrage and calls for the Democrat’s resignation. ... Patrick Howley, editor in chief of the website Big League Politics, first reported Friday the existence of a photo on Northam’s page of his medical-school yearbook depicting a figure in blackface standing next to another person in a Ku Klux Klan hood. ... “It’s very easy to explain,” Howley, 29, said in an interview on Saturday. “A concerned citizen, not a political opponent, came to us and pointed this out. I was very offended [by the photo] because I don’t like racism.”

The tip came after Northam’s comments on Wednesday about late-term abortions, he said. Howley declined to give any further information about his source, citing a confidentiality agreement. But he said it took him just a few hours to confirm that the photo was authentic. ... Howley’s four-paragraph story, which included the yearbook photo, was quickly confirmed by The Washington Post and other news outlets on Friday. The article ignited outrage on social media, immediate calls for Northam’s resignation, and a contradictory response from Northam.
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Howley said he is co-owner of Big League Politics, which he described as politically “independent.” He didn’t mention the site’s close connection to Republican and Virginia politics. ... Big League Politics’ co-owners include Noel Fritsch, a consultant who worked for the campaign of Corey Stewart, a conservative, neo-Confederate sympathizer who unsuccessfully challenged Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) for his seat last year, and Reilly O’Neal, another consultant who worked for Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate who was accused by multiple women of harassment and child molestation.

In its short existence, the website has reliably boosted Trump, attacked Democrats and liberal figures and written many articles promoting a discredited conspiracy theory popular among far-right conservatives about the murder of a young Democratic National Committee staffer named Seth Rich in 2016. ... As one of Breitbart’s lead reporters on the 2016 campaign, Howley filed multiple dispatches a day, most of them favorable to Trump and critical of his opponent, Democrat Hillary Clinton. .... In the wake of his Northam story, which was by far the most attention-getting of his career, Howley took a shot at the news media and opposition researchers for not discovering the yearbook first. “I think people are lazy,” he said. “The consultants and political journalists didn’t think to look at a yearbook. It’s been out there for years.”

Paul Farhi is The Washington Post's media reporter. He started at The Post in 1988 and has been a financial reporter, a political reporter and a Style reporter. Follow https://twitter.com/farhip