'We Need to Call It Out for What It Is'

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va.— “Okay, y’all bring the governor back up here.”

Dr. Alvin Edwards was addressing the crowd at the Sunday service at the Mt. Zion First African Baptist Church in downtown Charlottesville. But he was talking only partially to his congregation. The pastor was more directly addressing, jokingly, the scrum of reporters—bearing iPhones and voice recorders and bulky cameras—surrounding Virginia’s governor, Terry McAuliffe, as he walked through the center aisle of the church, first up the right side and then down the left, shaking hands and dispensing hugs. The hymn had concluded; the congregation was waiting; McAuliffe, however, was still going. And the media were going with him.

At Edwards’s reminder, though, they dispersed. This was a church service, after all. And before the governor had made his way down the aisle for all the hand-shaking, the service had gone, for the most part, according to