The Washington Post | The Fall of a Once Great Newspaper

 Democracy Dies in Darkness    

This is the slogan The Washington Post began using in 2017, four years after Jeff Bezos purchased the failing publication for $250M. This once lauded newspaper no longer lives up to its reputation or its slogan. 

WaPo, as once affectionately called, was first published in 1877 to support the Democrats. During various eras WaPo alternately supported Democrat or Republican views. It was not until Eugene Meyer purchased the paper in 1933 that WaPo begain to determine its place in history as a publication that supported non-ideological independent journalism. Under the leadership of his son-in-law, Philip Graham, followed by his widow, Katharine Graham, WaPo became a juggernaut of excellence and groundbreaking investigative reporting earning well-deserved awards.

Consider the publication in 1971 of excerpts of The Pentagon Papers and the subsequent investigative reporting by Woodward and Bernstein into Watergate. These are examples of how WaPo earned its reputation and prestige. WaPo and the New York Times set the standards for journalism excellence, which resulted in a generation of young, altruistic, reporters  yearning to uncover political misdeeds and join the ranks of the Pulitzer Prize winners they admired.

But, WaPo has come full circle and is once again a shill for the Democrat party. There is not even a scintilla of effort to pretend otherwise. Although I’ve been an intermittent subscriber for decades, I’ve come to accept that it is no longer worth reading for another perspective or for the Friday weekend section. 

This paper suffers from extreme Trump Derangement Syndrome. If one goes down the rabbit hole and reads the comments to articles, it is clear the moderators have no problem considering that threats against moderates and conservatives meets ‘community standards’. One poster today thought it was appropriate to wish all moderates and conservative thinkers ( regularly called Nazis, fascists, idiots, evil, MAGAts, racist, misogynistic, Hitler, authoritarian) death. 

WaPo readers are unwilling to consider any opinion that does not fit a specific narrative. Every person who did not vote for Kamala Harris is thought a cretin and MAGA supporter and unworthy of breath. There is no concept of nuance, of varying degrees of political thought across the broad spectrum of far right to progressive left.  Most Americans are somewhere in the middle between moderate left to moderate right. Most Americans want common sense government and eschew the extreme views of each party. 

But, WaPo is seeming to focus its  content towards the extremely leftist ideology, allows extremists to comment without moderation, and will continue to bleed readership. 

Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee must be rolling in their graves.