You were truly the canary in the coal mine of the black hole that used to be the WaPo. An early sign that truth telling was impermissible if the White House didn't like it.
Media critic Margaret Sullivan has repeatedly said that Bezos never interfered in the running of the newsroom prior to his hiring of Lewis. Those emails were evidence in the News Corp phone-hacking scandal. The slimey coward Lewis then bizarre blamed his destruction of those emails on former Prime Minister Gordon Brown:
“New Washington Post Boss Will Lewis Allegedly Hatched Phony Alibi to Destroy Millions of Emails Under the Noses of Cops – and falsely blamed ex-PM Gordon Brown:
Bizarre plot to save Rupert Murdoch and his sidekick Rebekah Brooks from prosecution revealed to High Court”
Fortunately the UK publication The Guardian has not buried the story the way the US media has. For example this article:
“First, Murdoch papers targeted me. Now there is evidence they falsely implicated me in a cover-up”
By Gordon Brown
“…..when the police confronted Lewis about the deletion of emails, including those of the then chief executive, Rebekah Brooks – despite the Met having requested them to be retained – it was a different story, which gave the game away.
His explanation conceded that emails were being destroyed to prevent them being seen. In an interview with the authorities on 8 July 2011, he tried to blame me by explaining to the police that he had been told that I, with Tom Watson, also an MP at that time, was conspiring to steal these emails. The Murdoch team implied I had bribed one of their former employees to do so, and indeed that we already had some of the documents. “
Lewis’s excuse is more ridiculous and childish than “the dog ate my homework”. Too bad our mainstream “liberal” media did not make as big a stink about Lewis personally ordering the destruction of millions of Murdoch org emails that the court had ordered preserved as they made about the phoney Hillary “buttery males” pseudo-scandal. But then the MSM is seriously allergic to self-criticism.
Because Prince Harry and others finally settled their lawsuit against the UK media (their laws strongly favor defendants) Lewis may get away with his blatantly criminal behavior. However Gordon Brown has not dropped it so Lewis may eventually be held to account:
“ Gordon Brown makes criminal complaint against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire:
Exclusive: Former British PM urges police to reopen inquiry – and claims media executive Will Lewis attempted to incriminate him
I have now spoken to police officers who say they were misled by Murdoch’s empire. I won’t let this rest | Gordon Brown”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a publisher using the power to fire to dictate editorial policy. Newspaper owners have done that forever. Just don’t go around at the same time proclaiming what a beacon of truth and objective reporting your property is.
The Guardian US is a terrific news outlet. It is free to read though I strongly suggest paying for a subscription. The Guardian US has none of the flaws of The NYT and worse, WAPO. It stands firm in honestly reporting, in detail, the US turn toward fascism under the current regime.
Any ideas on alternate dailies with national coverage?
And regarding Murdoch-creature Lewis's "Worship me like I'm Donald Trump, or hit the road." staff ultimatum...err, memo; he's simply obeying boss-man Bezos. Jeffie is no doubt deeply grateful to the GOP and Trump for the billions (??) in taxes he'll save from the OBBB, and no doubt is *already* ordering a second mega-yacht. But he's also got many billions in annual federal contracts on the line. That Trump could nix with the stroke of a pen.
Trump told Bezos to bend over. Jeffie has complied.
WaPo hasn't been a good news outlet for a long time. The NYT is even worse. Stories outside of politics, wars, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, BRICS, i.e., foreign policy, can be o.k. but for those topics, truth is not allowed.
enormous sadness at the destruction of a great newspaper when we need it most. canceled my sub recently, still getting used to only having the Times, wondering if I should subscribe to another good paper like the Globe or Inquirer. my first newspaper job was at the New York Post, graveyard shift, copy desk assistant. was there when Murdoch bought it, and when they brought in the Atex system that was then the industry standard. close to 50 years ago now. awful to watch the decline of a great enterprise. is Bezos just indifferent, or is he trying to outright kill it?
It is not difficult at all to know what Bezos is thinking. He hired Will Lewis <https://criticalread.substack.com/p/washington-post-publisher-seeks-to> all the while knowing exactly the depth of Lewis's dishonesty and willingness to cave to fascism. Bezos is not interested. He is invested.
Bezos is like the corrupt Murdoch family empire. Bezos bought the WP on the cheap from the Graham family for $250 million. (Comparatively, the NYT paid a Billion for the Boston Globe circa 1999 and later sold it at a loss.) Bezos is worth $236 Billion. That's Billion with a B. <https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/> To him, $250 million is a candy bar. His interest in the WP is political, not to make money. He wants to make certain that Washington makes and enforces policies favorable to him personally and to his class of Billionaires. He bought the WP legend and hired Will Lewis <https://criticalread.substack.com/p/washington-post-publisher-seeks-to> to force all WP opinion writers to bloviate for free market policies and 'personal liberties.' Anyone who did not support those policies would not be published. So, no, Bezos is not interested in making money on journalism. He's interested in the power he expects it to bring him.
thank you. that sounds like the best idea. hope after the tease rate it's not as pricey as the papers I mentioned—$26 a month for the Inquirer seems kinda steep.
The Guardian is about $60 a year though they deserve much more. The Inky (Philly Inquirer) is good for local and great for the national columnist Will Bunch.
You were truly the canary in the coal mine of the black hole that used to be the WaPo. An early sign that truth telling was impermissible if the White House didn't like it.
Media critic Margaret Sullivan has repeatedly said that Bezos never interfered in the running of the newsroom prior to his hiring of Lewis. Those emails were evidence in the News Corp phone-hacking scandal. The slimey coward Lewis then bizarre blamed his destruction of those emails on former Prime Minister Gordon Brown:
“New Washington Post Boss Will Lewis Allegedly Hatched Phony Alibi to Destroy Millions of Emails Under the Noses of Cops – and falsely blamed ex-PM Gordon Brown:
Bizarre plot to save Rupert Murdoch and his sidekick Rebekah Brooks from prosecution revealed to High Court”
https://bylineinvestigates.com/2024/07/29/new-washington-post-boss-will-lewis-allegedly-hatched-phony-alibi-to-destroy-millions-of-emails-under-the-noses-of-cops-and-falsely-blamed-ex-pm-gordon-brown/
Fortunately the UK publication The Guardian has not buried the story the way the US media has. For example this article:
“First, Murdoch papers targeted me. Now there is evidence they falsely implicated me in a cover-up”
By Gordon Brown
“…..when the police confronted Lewis about the deletion of emails, including those of the then chief executive, Rebekah Brooks – despite the Met having requested them to be retained – it was a different story, which gave the game away.
His explanation conceded that emails were being destroyed to prevent them being seen. In an interview with the authorities on 8 July 2011, he tried to blame me by explaining to the police that he had been told that I, with Tom Watson, also an MP at that time, was conspiring to steal these emails. The Murdoch team implied I had bribed one of their former employees to do so, and indeed that we already had some of the documents. “
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/31/gordon-brown-tom-watson-news-international-william-lewis-rupert-murdoch
Lewis’s excuse is more ridiculous and childish than “the dog ate my homework”. Too bad our mainstream “liberal” media did not make as big a stink about Lewis personally ordering the destruction of millions of Murdoch org emails that the court had ordered preserved as they made about the phoney Hillary “buttery males” pseudo-scandal. But then the MSM is seriously allergic to self-criticism.
Because Prince Harry and others finally settled their lawsuit against the UK media (their laws strongly favor defendants) Lewis may get away with his blatantly criminal behavior. However Gordon Brown has not dropped it so Lewis may eventually be held to account:
“ Gordon Brown makes criminal complaint against Rupert Murdoch’s media empire:
Exclusive: Former British PM urges police to reopen inquiry – and claims media executive Will Lewis attempted to incriminate him
I have now spoken to police officers who say they were misled by Murdoch’s empire. I won’t let this rest | Gordon Brown”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/apr/26/gordon-brown-criminal-complaint-rupert-murdoch-news-group-newspapers
Why do you think Bezos hired this creep? To do exactly what he wanted.
Just move to Substack
There’s nothing inherently wrong with a publisher using the power to fire to dictate editorial policy. Newspaper owners have done that forever. Just don’t go around at the same time proclaiming what a beacon of truth and objective reporting your property is.
The Guardian US is a terrific news outlet. It is free to read though I strongly suggest paying for a subscription. The Guardian US has none of the flaws of The NYT and worse, WAPO. It stands firm in honestly reporting, in detail, the US turn toward fascism under the current regime.
WAPO is a lost cause. NYT has become just a bad... Looking for suggestions for a daily newspaper that still practices Journalism, if there are any.
NYT still has a lot of straight news reporting. Opinion pieces aren’t restricted to newspapers anymore. There’s blogs and substacks galore.
If you can sort it out from the nonsense... The publisher has made clear his intentions. Another great newspaper bites the dust.
I don’t read much MSM Opinion. I prefer Substack.
I've been happy with the Boston Globe. Good coverage, and I don't see it as overly left-wing.
Thank you. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Boston. Great newspaper, good coverage. Why do they still have competent journalists?
I'm guessing Bostonians know a good thing when they have it. Oh -- and it's not owned by Bezos!!
Any ideas on alternate dailies with national coverage?
And regarding Murdoch-creature Lewis's "Worship me like I'm Donald Trump, or hit the road." staff ultimatum...err, memo; he's simply obeying boss-man Bezos. Jeffie is no doubt deeply grateful to the GOP and Trump for the billions (??) in taxes he'll save from the OBBB, and no doubt is *already* ordering a second mega-yacht. But he's also got many billions in annual federal contracts on the line. That Trump could nix with the stroke of a pen.
Trump told Bezos to bend over. Jeffie has complied.
For news or opinion? NYT still has a huge amount of news. I’m increasing reading blogs and Substacks for opinion.
The Guardian US. See my comment above.
WaPo hasn't been a good news outlet for a long time. The NYT is even worse. Stories outside of politics, wars, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, BRICS, i.e., foreign policy, can be o.k. but for those topics, truth is not allowed.
Thankfully you are free to write pieces like this with nary a punch pulled.
This is the future of opinion journalism.
enormous sadness at the destruction of a great newspaper when we need it most. canceled my sub recently, still getting used to only having the Times, wondering if I should subscribe to another good paper like the Globe or Inquirer. my first newspaper job was at the New York Post, graveyard shift, copy desk assistant. was there when Murdoch bought it, and when they brought in the Atex system that was then the industry standard. close to 50 years ago now. awful to watch the decline of a great enterprise. is Bezos just indifferent, or is he trying to outright kill it?
Hard to know what Bezos is thinking. He seems uninterested in it.
It is not difficult at all to know what Bezos is thinking. He hired Will Lewis <https://criticalread.substack.com/p/washington-post-publisher-seeks-to> all the while knowing exactly the depth of Lewis's dishonesty and willingness to cave to fascism. Bezos is not interested. He is invested.
His investment is losing money quickly. Odd that he doesn’t seem interested in that.
Bezos is like the corrupt Murdoch family empire. Bezos bought the WP on the cheap from the Graham family for $250 million. (Comparatively, the NYT paid a Billion for the Boston Globe circa 1999 and later sold it at a loss.) Bezos is worth $236 Billion. That's Billion with a B. <https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/> To him, $250 million is a candy bar. His interest in the WP is political, not to make money. He wants to make certain that Washington makes and enforces policies favorable to him personally and to his class of Billionaires. He bought the WP legend and hired Will Lewis <https://criticalread.substack.com/p/washington-post-publisher-seeks-to> to force all WP opinion writers to bloviate for free market policies and 'personal liberties.' Anyone who did not support those policies would not be published. So, no, Bezos is not interested in making money on journalism. He's interested in the power he expects it to bring him.
Could be. I have a subscription to WaPo but I don’t read the opinion section.
A thousand times yes: subscribe to the Guardian US. Thank me later.
thank you. that sounds like the best idea. hope after the tease rate it's not as pricey as the papers I mentioned—$26 a month for the Inquirer seems kinda steep.
The Guardian is about $60 a year though they deserve much more. The Inky (Philly Inquirer) is good for local and great for the national columnist Will Bunch.