The Washington Post

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The Washington Post, depending on who you ask, is either commie trash, a neoconservative rag desperately trying to outflank the rival (and paleoconservative) Washington Times from the right, the epitome of the worst excesses of the liberal media, Jeff Bezos's mouthpiece with its weird fact checks[1][2][note 1][note 2] and billionaire apologia,[5] or America's Newspaper of Record.TM[note 3] Media Bias/Fact Check, a more neutral source, classifies The Washington Post as a left-center source, slightly on the left of The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, for instance.[6] Since February 2017, a month after the inauguration of Donald Trump, the Post's new slogan is "Democracy Dies in Darkness" (although they claim it has nothing to do with Trump).[7]

It is most famous for the role played by two of its reporters, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (made famous in the film All the President's Men), in slowly exposing the Watergate scandal that led to then-President Richard M. Nixon's resignation in hoping avoid the shame of imminent impeachment.[8] At the time, the Post was but one of three competing Washington, D.C. daily newspapers along with the Washington Star and the Washington Daily News. Their coverage of the Watergate scandal solidified the Post's dominance in the D.C. newspaper market and gained the paper national stature. They were bought by Jeff Bezos, the asshole founder of Amazon, in 2013.[9] At the time of the purchase, Bezos told his employees that he would keep a hands-off approach to journalism at the paper.[10] Consequently, they also can't afford you looking at the newspaper for free so they helpfully imposed an article limit before hitting the ever-obnoxious paywall as well as bitching about your adblocker and proclaiming they will use your cookies. But, hey, at least the 2020 COVID-19 coverage was free! To his credit, Bezos actually kept his word until 2024 at least, with The Post including negative reportage on Bezos' original billionaire-making site, Amazon and even negative reportage against Bezos himself.[11][12][13]

Subsidiaries[edit]

From 1961 to 2010 the Post published Newsweek, which was at the time, America's second-largest weekly newsmagazine. Newsweek then collapsed after WaPo sold it off (admittedly, it was going downhill before then).[14]

In 2004 the Post purchased Slate Magazine from Microsoft.[15]

In 1984, the Post's parent company purchased Kaplan, Inc., a tutoring and educational testing service. In 2000, the Post bought an online college and renamed it Kaplan College (now Kaplan University). Like most for-profit institutions of higher education, Kaplan U. has become known more for its quest for profit than for its quest for knowledge.[16]

Columnists[edit]

An incomplete list;[17] some notable Post opinion columnists include:

Liberal columnists[edit]

Centrists and formerly-conservative columnists[edit]

  • Anne Applebaum (a centrist on domestic issues, but a hawkish neoconservative on anything to do with foreign policy and Eastern Europe).
  • Max Boot — anti-Trump ex-conservative, he wrote the book The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right in 2018
  • Jennifer Rubin[29] — Rubin was a traditional conservative before 2015. Since then, she has come out as strongly and frequently anti-Trump and highly critical of GOP enablers and supporters.

Conservative columnists[edit]

Since 2016, you could be forgiven for thinking that at least some of these columnists are actually liberal because of their relentless attacks on the criminality and corruption of the Trump administration.

  • Megan McArdle
  • Michael Gerson[30]
  • Hugh HewittWikipedia — worked in the Reagan White House in various posts, was a stooge for Richard Nixon's ghost as the executive director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum (he wanted to effectively keep out researchers who did not sign a loyalty oath)
During a regular live Post video feature (“First Look") preceding the November 2024 election, Hewitt resigned from the Post ran offstage in a huff after being called out as a serial liar by columnist Capehart.[31]

Bezos gets his hands dirty[edit]

“”
  • The newspaper’s duty is to its readers and to the public at large, and not to the private interests of its owners.
  • In the pursuit of truth, the newspaper shall be prepared to make sacrifices of its material fortunes, if such course be necessary for the public good.
—Eugene Meyer, March 5, 1935 (owner of The Post from 1933-1946)[38]

Fred RyanWikipedia was the publisher of The Post from 2014 to 2023. Following Bezos the unfortunate event that someone told Bezos that The Post lost $77 million in 2023,[39] Bezos decided to appoint William Lewis as the new publisher starting January 2, 2024.[40] For perspective on what a $77 million loss means to Bezos, his net worth in December 2023 was $171 billion,[41] and his net worth in October 2024 was $200 billion.[42] Bezos lost 1/2600th of his net worth on The Post in 2023, but his net worth still went up by $31 billion in 10 months. Clearly, if he wanted to, he could lose that amount of money on The Post from now to eternity if he thought it was a worthy endeavor.

Lewis' prior experience was as a journalist, followed by working as an editor for the conservative Daily Telegraph and the tabloid The Mail on Sunday,[43] followed by working as chief executive of the Rupert Murdoch-owned Dow Jones & Company, and publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He was tasked by Bezos to make The Post profitable again,[44] because every penny counts for billionaires. In June 2024, calls were made to investigate William Lewis' involvement in the criminal, dirty journalism News International phone hacking scandal.Wikipedia[45] Also in June 2024, to solve the profitability problem, Lewis proposed a new undefined third division for The Post, "social media and service journalism", that would supplement the existing two divisions of news and opinions.[46] Lewis' June meeting with staff at the Post about the third division was not well received.[44] Given that "social media and service journalism" is undefined, and Lewis' prior experience working in a tabloid and working for Murdoch, one wonders if it's a code phrase for tabloidism.

In October 2024, 11 days before the final day of the 2024 U.S. presidential election, The Post announced that it would not endorse a presidential candidate.[47] According to The Post's employees union, the Washington Post Guild, the endorsement of Kamala Harris had already been written by the editorial board when Bezos ordered that it be quashed.[48]

In explaining the decision, publisher Lewis claimed that it was a return to The Post's history of non-endorsements of candidates.[49]

Karen Attiah wrote that Lewis' claim that The Post had a history of non-endorsements was a false narrative, stating that in the times when The Post did not give an explicit endorsement, it laid out the facts about both candidates, making clear to the readerwhich one was better.[49] Attiah noted that even The Post's own 1977 book, The Editorial Page made it clear that the no-endorsement idea was wrong:[49][50]

“”I should begin by stating my dislike for the word ‘endorse;' it has an unqualified ring to it, as with Joe Namath, let us say, and pantyhose. It may have the effect of pinning a campaign button on a newspaper’s political reporters. … On the other hand, a compelling argument may be made that a newspaper ought to be willing to take a position on an issue on which every public-spirited citizen is expected to reach a conclusion.
—Philip Geyelin, former Washington Post editor

Additionally in 2016, The Post endorsed Hillary Clinton for President, stating:[51]

“”Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is dreadful, that is true — uniquely unqualified as a presidential candidate. If we believed that Ms. Clinton were the lesser of two evils, we might well urge you to vote for her anyway — that is how strongly we feel about Mr. Trump.

In 2020, The Post endorsed Joe Biden for President, stating, calling Trump, "the worst president of modern times".[52] Since Trump has obviously and publicly only gotten worse since his 2021 U.S. coup attempt,[53][54][55] the timing of editorial neutrality is clearly misplaced.[56]

Historian Timothy Snyder accused the owners of The Post (Bezos) and the Los Angeles Times' (Patrick Soon-ShiongWikipedia), which also conspicuously did not endorse, of obeying Trump's tyranny in advance.[57] Not obeying tyranny in advance was one of the tactics that Snyder listed in his book On Tyranny (Resisting looming tyranny).[58][59] The anticipatory obedience of the billionaires is indicative of cowardice.[60] Former Post editor, Marty Baron, called the decision, "cowardice, with democracy as its casualty."[61]

A more substantive reason for Bezos' stopping the endorsement is that hours before that, executives of one of Bezos other companies, Blue Origin met with Trump.[62] Blue Origin is in competition with Elon Musk's SpaceX for dominance in private space travel; Musk has been campaigning and funding Trump's 2024 presidential run.[63]

Sixteen columnists' credit, opposed the no-endorsement order. Unsurprisingly, the 21 did not include any of the conservative columnists. The protesting columnists are:[64]

  1. Karen Attiah[49]
  2. Perry Bacon Jr.
  3. Matt Bai
  4. Max Boot
  5. Kate Cohen
  6. E.J. Dionne Jr.
  7. Drew Goins
  8. Lee Hockstader
  9. David E. Hoffman
  10. David Ignatius
  11. Heather Long
  12. Ruth Marcus[56]
  13. Dana Milbank[65]
  14. Alexandra Petri[66]
  15. Eduardo Porter
  16. Catherine Rampell
  17. Molly Roberts
  18. Eugene Robinson
  19. Jennifer Rubin
  20. Karen Tumulty[67]
  21. Erik Wemple

Also, editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes created a dark, painted square, ironically titled, "Democracy Dies in Darkness".[68]

Regarding the resulting subscription cancellations (which by November 1 was reported at more than 250,000 subscribers, around 10% of the paper's paid circulation)[69] and readers' calls for staff resignations, Milbank had this to say:[65]

“”But I can’t endorse the calls to cancel The Post. Boycotting the newspaper won’t hurt Bezos, whose fortune comes not from Post subscribers but from Amazon Prime members and Whole Foods shoppers. His ownership and subsidization of The Post is just pocket change to him. And if readers want to strike a blow for democracy, they’d achieve more by knocking on doors and making calls for Harris for the next eight days. But boycotting The Post will hurt my colleagues and me. We lost $77 million last year, which required a(nother) round of staff cuts through buyouts. The more cancellations there are, the more jobs will be lost, and the less good journalism there will be.

In defending The Post, Milbank noted that since Bezos' purchase in 2013, The Post has won 18 Pulitzer Prizes for in-depth reporting on:[65]

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ↑
    “”It all started on Monday, when President Biden accused Donald Trump of having pledged not to accept the result if he loses in the fall and a reporter at the Washington Post described this as untrue, explaining that Trump “just hasn’t said that he would accept” and “previously said the only way he loses is if the Democrats cheat.” The Post would find itself in the barrel again before the convention was over, as would PolitiFact, which was taken to task for, among other things, asserting that while Trump repeatedly tried to cut Medicare when he was president, he has said that he won’t next time (honest).
    —Jon Allsop[3]
  2. ↑
    “”Ironically, the Washington Post issued a fact check at the top of their own Tuesday fact check. They incorrectly said that the contents of Trump’s letters to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were unknown. In reality, they now acknowledge, parts of the letters were published by their own associate editor Bob Woodward.
    —Naomi LaChance[4]
  3. ↑ The New York Times has also been given the label, something they've vehemently disliked.

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Democracy Dies From Bad Fact-Checking The Nation 3 September 2019
  2. ↑ Bernie Sanders' campaign is demanding that The Washington Post retract a fact-check article that assigned Sanders 3 'Pinocchios' by Kat Tenbarge (1 September 2019) Business Insider.
  3. ↑ "Fact-checking, unburdened by what has been" by Jon Allsop (August 23, 2024) Columbia Journalism Review.
  4. ↑ "Why Can’t Fact Checkers Handle Donald Trump?" by Naomi LaChance (August 21, 2024) Rolling Stone (archived from 21 Aug 2024 19:49:29 UTC).
  5. ↑ Punitive taxes on billionaires are bad politics, bad economics and just plain unfair The Washington Post 17 October 2019
  6. ↑ Washington Post Media Bias/Fact Check/
  7. ↑ The Washington Post’s new slogan turns out to be an old saying The Washington Post 24 February 2017
  8. ↑ Resignation was not the end: Today we assume an official who resigns won't face impeachment or a subsequent trial. That wasn't always the case. by Bryan Craig, Miller Center.
  9. ↑ Washington Post to be sold to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon The Washington Post 5 August 2013
  10. ↑ Jeff Bezos once saved the Washington Post. Now he needs to do it again by Margaret Sullivan (12 Jun 2024 14.55 EDT) The Guardian.
  11. ↑ Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Amazon won’t let you. Its monopoly is stopping public libraries from lending e-books and audiobooks from Mindy Kaling, Dean Koontz, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, Trevor Noah, Andy Weir, Michael Pollan and a whole lot more by Geoffrey A. Fowler (March 10, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EST) The Washington Post.
  12. ↑ Regulators blame Bezos for making Amazon worse in new lawsuit details: Previously redacted portions of the Federal Trade Commission’s lawsuit against Amazon allege Bezos gave the go-ahead to make search results worse in favor of increasing advertising revenue Caroline O'Donovan (November 2, 2023) The Washington Post.
  13. ↑ Rotterdam to dismantle part of historic bridge so Jeff Bezos’s massive yacht can pass through by Miriam Berger (February 2, 2022 at 1:21 p.m. EST) The Washington Post.
  14. ↑ Audio Pioneer Sidney Harman Buys Struggling Newsweek by Tanzina Vega & Jeremy W. Peters (Aug. 2, 2010) The New York Times.
  15. ↑ Company Overview of Slate Magazine Bloomberg Business (archived from April 3, 2015).
  16. ↑ At Kaplan University, 'Guerilla Registration' Leaves Students Deep In Debt: Kaplan University's 'Guerrilla Registration' Forcing Students Into Debt by Chris Kirkham (Dec 22, 2010, 08:35 AM EST; Updated Dec 6, 2017) Huffington Post.
  17. ↑ Opinions (click "Show all Opinion writers" for the full list) The Washington Post
  18. ↑ Karen Attiah The Washington Post.
  19. ↑ Jonathan Capehart The Washington Post.
  20. ↑ E.J. Dionne Jr.'s archive The Washington Post.
  21. ↑ David Ignatius' archive The Washington Post.
  22. ↑ Ruth Marcus' archive The Washington Post.
  23. ↑ Dana Milbank's archive The Washington Post.
  24. ↑ Alexandra Petri The Washington Post.
  25. ↑ Eugene Robinson's archive The Washington Post.
  26. ↑ Tom Toles' archive The Washington Post.
  27. ↑ Katrina vanden Heuvel’s archive The Washington Post.
  28. ↑ Paul Waldman’s archive The Washington Post.
  29. ↑ Jennifer Rubin's archive The Washington Post.
  30. ↑ Michael Gerson's archive The Washington Post.
  31. ↑ Hugh Hewitt quits The Washington Post after storming off newspaper’s live show by Liam Reilly (9:24 PM EDT, Fri November 1, 2024) CNN.
  32. ↑ Charles Krauthammer's archive The Washington Post.
  33. ↑ Sarah Palin, from pit bull to mama grizzly The Washington Post 14 July 2010
  34. ↑ Palin Problem National Review 26 September 2008
  35. ↑ Kathleen Parker's archive The Washington Post.
  36. ↑ Marc Thiessen's archive The Washington Post.
  37. ↑ George Will's archive The Washington Post.
  38. ↑ About The Post The Washington Post.
  39. ↑ The Washington Post publisher disclosed the paper lost $77 million last year. Here’s his plan to turn it around by Oliver Darcy (7:02 AM EDT, Thu May 23, 2024) CNN.
  40. ↑ William Lewis named publisher and CEO of The Washington Post: The veteran media executive, previously the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, was tapped by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to replace Fred Ryan, who stepped down in August. by Elahe Izadi & Jeremy Barr (November 4, 2023) The Washington Post.
  41. ↑ Jeff Bezos Forbes (archived from December 15, 2023).
  42. ↑ Jeff Bezos Forbes (October 3, 2024).
  43. ↑ Witness Statement of William Lewis (January 10, 2012) Discover Leveson.
  44. ↑ 44.0 44.1 The Post at a crossroads: Existential questions in a dire season for news: Critics raise concerns about the values of a new team of executives. Meanwhile, the business woes are real. What does Jeff Bezos want? by Elahe Izadi and Sarah Ellison (June 10, 2024 at 11:22 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  45. ↑ [Post publisher’s role in hacking response comes into sharper focus: Former U.K. prime minister Gordon Brown calls for William Lewis to be criminally investigated. Lewis says he “did nothing wrong.” by Aaron C. Davis et al. (June 28, 2024 at 7:22 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  46. ↑ Washington Post C.E.O. Promised Interview for Ignoring Scandal, NPR Reporter Says: David Folkenflik of NPR wrote that the offer, in exchange for agreeing to stop his coverage of a phone hacking scandal, was made “repeatedly — and heatedly.” by Katie Robertson & Benjamin Mullin (June 6, 2024) The New York Times.
  47. ↑ The Washington Post says it will not endorse a candidate for president: Publisher William Lewis explained the decision as a return to the newspaper’s roots. by Manuel Roig-Franzia & Laura Wagner (October 25, 2024) The Washington Post.
  48. ↑ 4/ "According to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision to not to publish was made by The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos […"] by Washington Post Guild (5:45 PM · Oct 25, 2024) Twitter (archived from 26 Oct 2024 09:56:21 UTC).
  49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 49.2 49.3 The true roots of The Post's endorsement policy: Even when The Post did not endorse presidential candidates, the paper made clear what it thought. by Karen Attiah (October 27, 2024 at 5:44 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  50. ↑ The Editorial Page, edited by Laura Longley Babb of the Washington Post Writers Group (1977) Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0884750051.
  51. ↑ Hillary Clinton for president (October 13, 2016 at 6:06 a.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  52. ↑ Joe Biden for president (September 28, 2020) The Washington Post.
  53. ↑ Harris says Trump 'is a fascist' after his ex-chief of staff says he wanted generals like Hitler's: Vice President Kamala Harris says she believes Donald Trump “is a fascist.” by Dan Merica (October 24, 2024 at 8:53 a.m. EDT) AP via The Washington Post.
  54. ↑ The Coming Trump Revenge Tour: Trump has campaigned on a wave of retaliatory criminal prosecutions. It’s not the first time he’s promised to lock up his rivals — but a second term would be different. by Ankush Khardori (09/30/2024 05:00 AM EDT) Politico.
  55. ↑ Trump's cognitive deficits seem worse. We need to know if he has dementia: Psychologist by John Gartner (Published 3:15 p.m. ET April 9, 2019 | Updated 4:13 p.m. ET April 9, 2019) USA Today.
  56. ↑ 56.0 56.1 For The Post, the wrong choice at the worst possible time. The newspaper blundered by not endorsing a candidate for president. by Ruth Marcus (October 25, 2024 at 8:21 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  57. ↑ Obeying in advance: Media billionaires ask for tyranny by Timothy Snyder (Oct 26, 2024) Substack.
  58. ↑ On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder (2017) Tim Duggan Books. ISBN 0804190119.
  59. ↑ ‘Anticipatory obedience’: newspapers’ refusal to endorse shines light on billionaire owners’ motives: The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post both declined to endorse a candidate – a sign of political media capture by Lois Beckett (Sat 26 Oct 2024 09.14 EDT) The Guardian.
  60. ↑ ‘Anticipatory obedience’: newspapers’ refusal to endorse shines light on billionaire owners’ motives: The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post both declined to endorse a candidate – a sign of political media capture by Lois Beckett (26 Oct 2024 09.14 EDT) The Guardian.
  61. ↑ On political endorsement https://wapo.st/3YmeD3T This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. @realdonaldtrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @jeffbezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage. by Marty Baron (4:18 PM · Oct 25, 2024) Twitter (archived from 26 Oct 2024 00:50:41 UTC).
  62. ↑ Bezos faces criticism after executives met with Trump on day of Post’s non-endorsement: Executives of Blue Origin briefly met with Trump within hours after paper spiked endorsement of Harris by Michael Sainato (27 Oct 2024 11.55 EDT) The Guardian.
  63. ↑ Democrats rip Musk as billionaire takes leading role in Trump campaign by Julia Shapero (10/25/24 6:00 AM ET) The Hill.
  64. ↑ 20.com/opinions/2024/10/25/post-columnist-no-endorsement-2024-trump-harris/ Post columnists respond: The newspaper’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate is a mistake. (October 25, 2024 at 6:50 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  65. ↑ 65.0 65.1 65.2 Why I’m not quitting the Post: And why I hope you don’t, either. by Dana Milbank (October 27, 2024 at 4:09 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  66. ↑ It has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president: Isn’t this what a newspaper is supposed to do? by Alexandra Petri (October 26, 2024 at 4:22 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  67. ↑ Refusing to endorse a candidate, The Post wounds itself: It is the job of a newspaper editorial board to make judgments on important political questions. by Karen Tumulty (October 25, 2024 at 7:56 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  68. ↑ Democracy Dies in Darkness: Ann Telnaes cartoon on The Post not endorsing a presidential candidate. by Ann Telnaes (October 25, 2024 at 6:21 p.m. EDT) The Washington Post.
  69. ↑ "What happened to all those subscriptions?" by Erik Wempie, Washington Post, 2024 November 1 October 28
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