#WaPo corrects ‘White conservatives’ Clarence Thomas report

The Washington Post issued a correction on Thursday after a story reported that US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinions “resemble the thinking of White conservatives.”

The Post’s story, which was on the apparent influence Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) has over President Biden’s decision to replace Associate Justice Stephen Breyer on the Supreme Court, suggested that if they are vetted by the congressman, they’ll be reliably progressive.

The article quoted Clyburn ally Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), who contrasted a Clyburn nominee to Thomas.

“If you know that a person has been vetted by Jim Clyburn, you know that person won’t go to the court and end up being a Clarence Thomas,” the newspaper quoted Thompson as saying.

But the reporters, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. and Marianna Sotomayor, went on to add that Thompson was “referring to the Black justice whose rulings often resemble the thinking of white conservatives.”

The last line sparked outrage on Twitter.

“So the Washington Post just casually refers to Clarence Thomas as an Uncle Tom and it’s just something that the rest of the journalists just let happen without speaking out. It’s just a thing that happens and they are fine with it,” one Twitter user wrote.

“WTF, WaPo?,” another wrote.

After the line about Thomas went viral and resulted in backlash, the Post issued the following clarification:

“A previous version of this story imprecisely referred to Justice Clarence Thomas’s opinions as often reflecting the thinking of White conservatives, rather than conservatives broadly. That reference has been removed.“

The most recent version of the Post’s article refers to Thomas simply as “the Black conservative justice.”