# The Washington Post: Democracy Dies With Us **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [October 25, 2024, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210 "2024-10-25T17:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 31
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/601 "2026-01-03T23:38:41Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > The news articles in it make it clear how bad a president Trump is. Some do. But the official stance of the Washington Post isn’t represented by those articles. It’s represented by, yes, the editorials. For example, Bezos rejected an editorial cartoon that failed to adulate either Trump or himself; the cartoonist left rather than give in to the implicit requirement to avoid criticizing Trump. Your idea that some articles that do criticize Trump outweigh the clear editorial direction of the paper under Bezos, is something you have every right to believe. But you can’t expect other people to share your view. > **[Washington Post editorial cartoonist resigns over banned cartoon. What’s the...](https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2025/01/08/washington-post-editorial-cartoon)** > > Ann Telnaes resigned after the paper refused to publish her cartoon featuring a giant statue of President-elect Donald Trump towering above Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, who is kneeling. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/602 "2026-01-04T00:02:30Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > some articles that do criticize Trump outweigh the clear editorial direction of the paper under Bezos No, all the news articles that mention Trump criticize him and most of the editorials, opinion pieces, and letters oppose Trump. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/603 "2026-01-04T03:24:02Z")
The Post was given advance notice of the kidnapping. They said nothing. Fascist appeasers to the last one. > **[News organizations held off on reporting Venezuela raid](https://www.semafor.com/article/01/03/2026/new-york-times-washington-post-held-off-on-reporting-venezuela-raid)** > > The American news organizations held their stories over concerns about endangering US troops. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/604 "2026-01-04T03:34:24Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Does anyone still have a subscription to cancel? Because this would be an excellent opportunity. I never did have a subscription but I let my Prime expire a year ago last November and have not spent a dime with Amazon since then, particularly tough as I have a Kindle. This reinforces that decision. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/605 "2026-01-04T11:43:21Z")
You probably know all this, but newer Kindles can take epub formats, and of course you can still take out library books onto your Kindle. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/606 "2026-01-04T14:22:14Z")
I switched to a Kobo. It still supports side loading. I keep my e-library in Calibre. My next e-reader will probably be an e-ink generic tablet. Once upon a time, the Kindle was really the best e-reader. It’s not, any more. I still read the Post. I’ve never really read the editorial page of any newspaper. The Post continues to have excellent science reporting, and surprisingly okay political reporting. It doesn’t last it’s political spent bleed into the news articles as much as the NYT does. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2026, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/607 "2026-01-04T17:50:01Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > You probably know all this, but newer Kindles can take epub formats, and of course you can still take out library books onto your Kindle. Of course. A good many of the books in my Calibre library were snagged from Gutenberg and I get the Baen free books, as well as buying a couple every year. Amazon was easier for the current stuff plus I was getting three or four of Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct series every year – about the pace he was writing them – and Amazon had them all easily ordered, sometimes even on sale. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/608 "2026-02-04T19:05:43Z")
> Baron, the former executive editor, warned: “The Washington Post’s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever.”… > > “Bezos’s sickening efforts to curry favor with President Trump have left an especially ugly stain of their own,” Baron said. “This is a case study in near-instant, self-inflicted brand destruction.”… > > The union suggested that Bezos might not be the right owner for the Post. “If [Jeff Bezos](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/jeff-bezos) is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then the Post deserves a steward who that will.” > **[‘It’s an absolute bloodbath’: Washington Post lays off hundreds of workers](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/04/washington-post-layoffs)** > > Former Post executive editor blasts owner Jeff Bezos’s ‘sickening efforts to curry favor’ with Trump **Approximately one-third of employees were affected!** ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/609 "2026-02-04T19:15:48Z")
> Seeking to lay out the business case for the layoffs, Murray said the move was “about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded and competitive and complicated media landscape”. Is there a book with management language like this, or does it come naturally to some people? ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/610 "2026-02-04T19:31:12Z")
It requires either an MBA or a blunt force head injury. But I repeat myself. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/611 "2026-02-04T19:43:16Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Is there a book with management language like this, or does it come naturally to some people? The goal is to sound impressive and insightful while saying nothing beyond the trivially tautological. It’s a skill like any other and can be learned. But it does seem to pay well. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/612 "2026-02-04T19:57:27Z")
Much of what the Post’s former executive editor said there was actually understatement, although this sentence rings true: "Martin Baron, the Post’s executive editor until 2021, said: ‘This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations’.” Essentially the _Washington Post_ is no more, its motto now deeply ironic. It’s been thoroughly Trumpified. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > > Seeking to lay out the business case for the layoffs, Murray said the move was “about positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded and competitive and complicated media landscape”. > > Is there a book with management language like this, or does it come naturally to some people? It feeds on itself in management culture and is absorbed through osmosis by all participants who seek to be part of the management in-group. No one knows where it comes from. It’s usually more cryptic and elaborate than that – that statement sounds like an attempt to dumb down biz-speak into pseudo-English so reporters had some hope of unraveling its meaning, which I take to be basically this: “we want to maximize profits for Bezos while totally aligning ourselves with the Orange Tyrant by turning the Post into a disreputable right-wing rag, which we expect will make us very popular.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/613 "2026-02-04T20:05:06Z")
I did the half-cancel suggested somewhere here (start the cancellation process, then accept a year at half price) when they failed to endorse Harris. I fully cancelled a few months ago, and told them why. The Editorials were so poorly argued that they amounted to propaganda. I don’t mind right-wing editorials at all—I like being challenged in my ideas. So many of them were just stupid, and only worked if you had already swallowed a lot of the received wisdom on the right. I just could not pay to support that kind of writing. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/614 "2026-02-04T20:12:02Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > It’s been thoroughly Trumpified. Do you actually read _The Washington Post,_ or do you just read what other people say about it? I read it every day It has lots of news articles, cartoons, editorials, opinion pieces, and reviews of current culture that’s not remotely pro-Trump. It just doesn’t need to scream about why those pieces are anti-Trump. Incidentally, subscribing to _The Washington Post_ doesn’t make Bezos richer. He actually loses money on it. My calculation is that each yearly subscription from one household decreases his worth by about $100. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/615 "2026-02-04T20:13:13Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > My calculation is that each yearly subscription from one household decreases his worth by about $100. Wait…what are you estimating as the marginal cost of one subscription to WaPo? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/616 "2026-02-04T20:19:57Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Wait…what are you estimating as the marginal cost of one subscription to WaPo? Bezos loses about $100,000,000 each year on _The Washington Post_. There are less than 100,000 people who get the paper delivered to their door each day. Each of those decreases Bezos’s worth by over $100. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/617 "2026-02-04T20:35:36Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Do you actually read _The Washington Post,_ or do you just read what other people say about it? I read about the mass firings and resignations of renowned journalists since William Lewis took over as publisher, after working for Rupert Murdoch’s _Wall Street Journal_. Who also, in 2024, after WaPo had endorsed Democratic presidential candidates for a quarter of a century, declared that the paper would no longer do so. Who is going to write all these great articles when the best journalists have resigned or been fired? > [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Incidentally, subscribing to _The Washington Post_ doesn’t make Bezos richer. He actually loses money on it. My calculation is that each yearly subscription from one household decreases his worth by about $100. Which raises two questions. 1. Why did this Trump-loving asshole buy a paper that was guaranteed to lose him money? If it was for political reasons, what does that say about the future of WaPo’s editorial policy, especially given the changes we’re already seeing. 2. What exactly is the meaning of this gobbledygook – “positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives in what is becoming a more crowded and competitive and complicated media landscape” – if it isn’t expressing a desire to be more profitable? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/618 "2026-02-04T21:27:00Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Why did this Trump-loving asshole buy a paper that was guaranteed to lose him money? Maybe he thought it would be fun to run a newspaper. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/619 "2026-02-04T21:46:17Z")
Unfortunately, this feels like an argument based on Underwear Gome logic. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/620 "2026-02-04T21:54:06Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Is there a book with management language like this, or does it come naturally to some people I think even the late Scott Adams would have been impressed at this fine display of managementese. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210.md?page=30) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210.md?page=32)