Thanks for this column. Spouse and I've been conflicted over keeping our WaPo subscription for the reason you review here. You've persuaded me to keep it for now, so that the remaining excellent journos at the Post still have an outlet for their work.
I guess it’s true, “You can’t go home again.” But I am glad you are not so discouraged that you believe all the good things we have built can never be rebuilt after MAGA tore them down.
You're right, we need The Washington Post. We don't need the rag that Bezos has turned the paper into. Until he sells the paper to someone who cares more about the facts than appeasing Trump, I will be seeking my news elsewhere.
I would rather have a news organization staffed by former WaPo journalists than even click on a gift link for a Bezos backed story which requires my email address to read it by. That’s a hard NO!
You and other former staffers could join together and call yourselves the ExPost Factors -Democracy Lives In The Light. Ask Mackenzie Scott if she would be pleased to back you.
No way will I subscribe to the WaPo again. I've got more Substack subs than I can afford. Perhaps MacKenzie Scott could be convinced to undo some of the damage done by her ex and fund a startup newspaper that employs a few of the WaPo's best. (Everything I know that is TS/SCI I read in the WaPo. We need that channel!)
I might agree with you that the Washington Post is needed, but maybe the time has come to go a different route. Just because fifty years ago we trusted the Post to keep us "posted" on Watergate, and the heroics that Bradlee and Graham showed against the full force of the government to quash the story, today's environment for truth may not be the right environment for the Post.
You are right that Bezos characteristally bent to the "I want to keep getting richer and I have a great opportunity to do so if I kiss Trump's ass" scenario, but the Post was in decline for at least the last few decades. Siding with Bush, Tenet et al a la Iraq, going along with the Tea Party Congress, and allowing Trump a foothold to get to the Presidency are not the type of things to keep Democracy from dying in darkness. Too many really poor writers and far right sympathizers ruined the paper for me, and for many others. I, for one, want two parties working together for the good of the country, not two ideologically-challenged puerile and infantile day care centers for the so-called "leaders" of our republic.
The Post by itself allowed itself to fall a far way down the truthlessness rabbit hole. It's time for a newer, stronger competitor to take on the challenge of keeping our leaders honest and reporting the truth.
I understand your grief but I think it has blinded you to the fact that the WaPo you revere has been dead for a long time. Great reporting still occurs but the reflexive bothsidesism and the insistence on normalizing and sanewashing Trump meant that WaPo failed in its duty of speaking truth to power long before Bezos spiked the Kamala endorsement. Your efforts to get WaPo and other legacy media outlets to wake up and do their job were Herculean and, sadly, unsuccessful. I think we would all benefit from having you turn your superb analytical skills to the independent voices that have sprung up in response to the abject failure of WaPo, NYT, the networks, and cable news.
I subscribed to WaPo for many years, and really liked their more concise editing style. So I'd read NYT if I wanted a deep dive on a topic; and WaPo if I wanted a terse but still clear take. Under Trump1 I loved WaPo.
It was the departure of Rubin, Bump and Telnaes shattered any illusions that Bezos really was turning his pet newspaper into FOX-lite. And his recent firing of 33% of the staff--that exactly coincided with his firing 20,000 Amazon workers--that also coincided with the premier of his $75 milliion bribe...err, premier of Melania--really was the last straw.
Bezos forced WaPo turn make a hard-right to mollify Trump. And when the paper's predominantly liberal audience left it in protest, he damaged the paper further by cutting even more features as to make it nearly useless. RIP WaPo.
Mr. Froomkin - I first started reading your columns during your time at the WaPo. I canceled my WaPo subscription a while back (long after your departure) when it became clear it was becoming a shill for King Trump.
You make some solid points about some of the recent WaPo articles which shed further light on Trump's crimes, but you seem to be under the illusion those might continue. As Bezos further sucks up to Trump, he will make sure those kinds of articles no longer happen.
I still remember the WaPo's tremendous work during Watergate. How sad that the WaPo is now dead and gone.
"When the time comes to hang the capitalist West, the American businessman will sell us the rope." - Nikita Khrushchev
I value journalism, but I'm not gonna stand on the deck listening to the band play "Nearer My God To Thee." I expect the folks in the lifeboats to do something and I'll back them when they do.
Ever been to Denver? Ever heard of Alden? Go take a look at the Sun and see what people can do once they've taken off the chains. But if instead you want a half-assed paper with no content, be loyal and stick with the Post -- Denver or Washington.
Thanks for this column. Spouse and I've been conflicted over keeping our WaPo subscription for the reason you review here. You've persuaded me to keep it for now, so that the remaining excellent journos at the Post still have an outlet for their work.
I guess it’s true, “You can’t go home again.” But I am glad you are not so discouraged that you believe all the good things we have built can never be rebuilt after MAGA tore them down.
I still subscribe. I hate to abandon the remaining journalists.
I follow the greats on substacks, like yours. I can’t subscribe to WaPo anymore.
You're right, we need The Washington Post. We don't need the rag that Bezos has turned the paper into. Until he sells the paper to someone who cares more about the facts than appeasing Trump, I will be seeking my news elsewhere.
I would rather have a news organization staffed by former WaPo journalists than even click on a gift link for a Bezos backed story which requires my email address to read it by. That’s a hard NO!
You and other former staffers could join together and call yourselves the ExPost Factors -Democracy Lives In The Light. Ask Mackenzie Scott if she would be pleased to back you.
No way will I subscribe to the WaPo again. I've got more Substack subs than I can afford. Perhaps MacKenzie Scott could be convinced to undo some of the damage done by her ex and fund a startup newspaper that employs a few of the WaPo's best. (Everything I know that is TS/SCI I read in the WaPo. We need that channel!)
I might agree with you that the Washington Post is needed, but maybe the time has come to go a different route. Just because fifty years ago we trusted the Post to keep us "posted" on Watergate, and the heroics that Bradlee and Graham showed against the full force of the government to quash the story, today's environment for truth may not be the right environment for the Post.
You are right that Bezos characteristally bent to the "I want to keep getting richer and I have a great opportunity to do so if I kiss Trump's ass" scenario, but the Post was in decline for at least the last few decades. Siding with Bush, Tenet et al a la Iraq, going along with the Tea Party Congress, and allowing Trump a foothold to get to the Presidency are not the type of things to keep Democracy from dying in darkness. Too many really poor writers and far right sympathizers ruined the paper for me, and for many others. I, for one, want two parties working together for the good of the country, not two ideologically-challenged puerile and infantile day care centers for the so-called "leaders" of our republic.
The Post by itself allowed itself to fall a far way down the truthlessness rabbit hole. It's time for a newer, stronger competitor to take on the challenge of keeping our leaders honest and reporting the truth.
I understand your grief but I think it has blinded you to the fact that the WaPo you revere has been dead for a long time. Great reporting still occurs but the reflexive bothsidesism and the insistence on normalizing and sanewashing Trump meant that WaPo failed in its duty of speaking truth to power long before Bezos spiked the Kamala endorsement. Your efforts to get WaPo and other legacy media outlets to wake up and do their job were Herculean and, sadly, unsuccessful. I think we would all benefit from having you turn your superb analytical skills to the independent voices that have sprung up in response to the abject failure of WaPo, NYT, the networks, and cable news.
I subscribed to WaPo for many years, and really liked their more concise editing style. So I'd read NYT if I wanted a deep dive on a topic; and WaPo if I wanted a terse but still clear take. Under Trump1 I loved WaPo.
It was the departure of Rubin, Bump and Telnaes shattered any illusions that Bezos really was turning his pet newspaper into FOX-lite. And his recent firing of 33% of the staff--that exactly coincided with his firing 20,000 Amazon workers--that also coincided with the premier of his $75 milliion bribe...err, premier of Melania--really was the last straw.
Bezos forced WaPo turn make a hard-right to mollify Trump. And when the paper's predominantly liberal audience left it in protest, he damaged the paper further by cutting even more features as to make it nearly useless. RIP WaPo.
Mr. Froomkin - I first started reading your columns during your time at the WaPo. I canceled my WaPo subscription a while back (long after your departure) when it became clear it was becoming a shill for King Trump.
You make some solid points about some of the recent WaPo articles which shed further light on Trump's crimes, but you seem to be under the illusion those might continue. As Bezos further sucks up to Trump, he will make sure those kinds of articles no longer happen.
I still remember the WaPo's tremendous work during Watergate. How sad that the WaPo is now dead and gone.
"When the time comes to hang the capitalist West, the American businessman will sell us the rope." - Nikita Khrushchev
I value journalism, but I'm not gonna stand on the deck listening to the band play "Nearer My God To Thee." I expect the folks in the lifeboats to do something and I'll back them when they do.
If that's what you're waiting for, see you on the ocean floor.
Ever been to Denver? Ever heard of Alden? Go take a look at the Sun and see what people can do once they've taken off the chains. But if instead you want a half-assed paper with no content, be loyal and stick with the Post -- Denver or Washington.