# 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:** 32
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/621 "2026-02-04T21:54:39Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > 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. That’s not how it works. The Post doesn’t become proportionately more expensive with each additional subscription. The Post’s expenses are set - mostly by payroll. Any electronic subscription has virtually zero related expenses for the Post. It’s almost entirely profit - profit that must be balanced against the cost of producing the paper in the larger scheme of things, but again the paper doesn’t become more expensive to produce because there’s an additional subscription. There’s a tiny bump in the aggregate bandwidth requirements of the web servers, is all. But there’s also a tiny bump in ad revenue, so that’s probably a wash. A paper subscription is a slightly different proposition. They might lose money on those. I have no idea what the production and distribution costs of paper media are relative to paper subscriptions these days. But again the marginal cost of one extra paper for one extra subscription vs the subscription fee and distribution-number-based ad revenue is unrelated to the overall production cost of the paper. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/622 "2026-02-05T01:21:36Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > Is there a book with management language like this, or does it come naturally to some people? > [@Cervaise](#): > > It requires either an MBA or a blunt force head injury. But I repeat myself. Look here. I actually majored in Business Administration for a time in college (I was originally a CompSci major). …At a certain point there actually was a course and book that taught how to talk this way. I shit you not. Stuff like economics, business law, accounting, those were practical, but not that corporate jargon shit. I hated it. ---
**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:** [February 5, 2026, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/623 "2026-02-05T05:49:16Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Essentially the _Washington Post_ is no more, its motto now deeply ironic. It’s been thoroughly Trumpified. As Colbert said this evening, the motto is no longer _Democracy dies in darkness_ but rather _Democracy Die! Die! Die!_ ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/624 "2026-02-05T05:54:28Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > 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.” I don’t quite get these legacy media organizations trying to re-fashion themselves as Fox News-lite, especially when people seeking a Fox-like product can pretty easily tune into full-strength, original recipe Fox News, which is all too happy to continue feeding bullshit to its viewers. Also, conservatives and the media that panders to them have spent years trashing the Washington Post. I can’t imagine too many conservatives are going to start reading the paper just because Jeff Bezos has decided to focus the opinion section on “free markets and personal liberties.” ---
**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:** [February 5, 2026, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/625 "2026-02-05T05:58:54Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > the motto is no longer _Democracy dies in darkness_ but rather _Democracy Die! Die! Die!_ “Why, that’s just German. It means ‘Democracy, the! The! The!’” ---
**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 5, 2026, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/626 "2026-02-05T06:09:53Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > I don’t quite get these legacy media organizations trying to re-fashion themselves as Fox News-lite, especially when people seeking a Fox-like product can pretty easily tune into full-strength, original recipe Fox News, which is all too happy to continue feeding bullshit to its viewers. Somebody, perhaps Bezos, must have asked the question: “do you want to continue to lose money as a liberal paper, or do you want to join the fascist revolution and enjoy the glorious profitability of Fox News?” Apparently everybody said (with tears in their eyes) “sir, yes, sir, we sure do want that fascist thing, thank you sir!” Not that money has any influence at all in politics – John Roberts assured us, in the _Citizens United_ ruling, that it never does. But still, one still senses that it sometimes might. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/627 "2026-02-05T09:48:16Z")
[Here is an open letter](https://www.meidasplus.com/p/a-letter-to-jeff-bezos-and-the-washington) from MeidasTouch to Bezos and what’s left of the _Post_: > _The Washington Post_ was once a standard-bearer for American journalism. It stood for fearless investigative reporting, for holding the powerful accountable, and for the simple but radical idea that democracy cannot survive without a free press. > > That institution is now being destroyed. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/628 "2026-02-05T10:00:27Z")
So basically, the Post is turning into The Washington Times (just like the New York Times is turning into the New York Post). ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2026, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/629 "2026-02-05T16:09:22Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > …for holding the powerful accountable… Well, yeah, that’s the problem Bezos is trying to fix. ---
**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 6, 2026, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/630 "2026-02-06T12:36:35Z")
The choices for layoffs at the Washington Post are bizarre, and don’t make any sense. I could understand if he killed off the paper outright. If he’s doing this to curry favor with Trump I could understand laying off anyone critical of him, or of the entire division covering Washington politics. But he’s leaving ac lot of things intact, yet destroying entire sections that you would think would make sense for a functioning newspaper to have: The Ukraine bureau chief and correspondent (in the middle of a war) (the rest of the staff is still there) The entire Middle East staff The Sports section (!) – You can’t get more apolitical than sports, and I’m sure a lot of people buy the paper just for the sports section. Why close it? The Books section – well, books can be subversive, but it makes almost as little sense to close this as it does the Sports section. Lots of other people being let go, too. They’re “restructuring” the Metro section (so, still some local news). And they’re letting go Caroline O’Donovan, who specialized in covering Amazon – no real surprise there. As has been pointed out, Bezos can easily cover any of the paper’s losses. So why this selecting disembowelment, rather than simply killing the paper? ---
**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 6, 2026, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/631 "2026-02-06T13:25:57Z")
Legit questions, not rhetorical ones. But probably ones none of us can answer definitively: - Is Bezos personally picking who or what got axed? - Or did he just issue an edict to the bean counters to reduce payroll X percent? - Plus fire these one or two especially irksome employees that had come to his attention? - Or was this a “decimation” in the original sense of the word: Axe a bunch of people / departments sorta willy-nilly to ensure everyone else is terrified into “happily” going along with whatever form of anti-journalism comes next? IMO … tl;dr: Faux is highly profitable. WaPo is not. So convert WaPo into a Faux clone & watch the money roll in and as a collateral benefit, eliminate the old-style WaPo as a thorn in the side of the Fascist / Oligarch takeover of the USA. Long form: If there is method to the seeming madness it sounds like his goal is to create a propaganda outlet that’s relentlessly focussed on his personal pet projects. Which are a) sucking up to trump, b) selling _laissez faire_ fat-cat friendly regulatory & tax policies, and c) general techbro racist conformist noise for the masses. A Middle East bureau or a sports section don’t contribute to that mission. Further, it’s pretty clear they intend to eventually stop producing a dead tree “newspaper” and simple become, like Faux, a website & social media stream of ~~opinion~~ propaganda pieces lightly disguised as current events. Any content which is not that content is simply unfocussed noise that doesn’t contribute to their mission of firehosing their flavor of propaganda at a crowd conditioned to want, nay _crave_, a focused dose of that stuff. ---
**Author:** ![bmasters1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5e925/32.png) [@bmasters1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmasters1)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/632 "2026-02-06T13:37:36Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > The Sports section (!) – You can’t get more apolitical than sports, and I’m sure a lot of people buy the paper just for the sports section. Why close it? Probably for the same reason that FOX “News” stopped actually reporting news, weather and sports, and became a right-wing mad-at-the-world TV talk-radio channel around the clock, or almost– because that’s what sold with too many rednecks in the South, for one; they didn’t want to know what was actually going on, but really wanted FOX to confirm what they believed was going on (just like liberals have wanted with what is now MS NOW). ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/633 "2026-02-07T08:25:00Z")
I don’t understand dropping sports news. I am not a sports person but from what I observe there are a lot of people who must get their sports news. (Just as an example, my father has a subscription to the Post but asked me to set up their app so that sports came up first when he clicked on it). I would assume that sports is a driver to any news site. Dropping Ukraine coverage OTOH makes sense because coverage is expensive, dangerous and most important harmful to Trump in reminding people that the war that he promised to stop in 24 hours is still ongoing. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/634 "2026-02-07T09:30:42Z")
Yesterday the WP ran a transphobic column by Megan McArdle, that _FILTH_ who had just made excuses for Jeffrey Epstein’s child-rapists. Filthy hypocrite. ---
**Author:** ![Chad\_Sudan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chad_sudan/32/4509_2.png) [@Chad\_Sudan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chad_Sudan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/635 "2026-02-07T11:25:47Z")
As far as I can tell, the _Post_ did not report on its recent layoffs in its own pages. (That omission is more what you’d expect from a smalltown rag than a newspaper of record.) So it’s left to readers in the comments sections, and awesome advice columnist Carolyn Hax, to discuss what is on everyone’s minds. The _New Yorker_ has a well-informed piece this week on “How Jeff Bezos Brought Down the Washington Post.” The author, Ruth Marcus, proposes that Bezos make the _Post_ a nonprofit that he funds but does not control. It’s a nice idea, but you can be sure that the distinction would be lost on Trump and that he would continue to threaten and punish Bezos for whatever the _Post_ published. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/636 "2026-02-07T12:05:00Z")
I used to think there was something called “fuck you money” - that if you had enough money, you could do whatever you wanted without caring what other people think. Now I realize no such thing exists. Look at Jeff Bezos: he has hundreds of billions of dollars, and yet he still doesn’t have enough to say fuck you to Donald Trump. ---
**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 7, 2026, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/637 "2026-02-07T12:13:49Z")
Yes, Bezos has billions and billions of dollars. He will always have billions and billions of dollars. Nothing Trump or his allies can do will cause Bezos to not have billions and billions of dollars. However — Trump could, plausibly, within the realm of possibility, cause Bezos to stop making _more and more_ billions and billions of dollars. Bezos absolutely does have fuck-you money … if only he were able to abandon the premise of “line must go up.” But he can’t. Because that, among our modern class of gilded sociopaths, is the one thing that cannot be abided. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/638 "2026-02-07T12:25:46Z")
J K Rowling has fuck-you money. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/639 "2026-02-07T12:26:41Z")
I get it. In a way, Jeff Bezos is even worse than Elon Musk. To paraphrase _Hamilton_: “Musk has beliefs - Bezos has none”. 99% of Musk’s beliefs are crazy, evil or both, but at least he has some sort of vision and plan for the world. Bezos is just a hollow, empty man. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210/640 "2026-02-07T12:30:47Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Nothing Trump or his allies can do will cause Bezos to not have billions and billions of dollars. Trump _could_ theoretically throw him in prison & take everything he owns. Hard power beats soft power. And having to break the law to do it wouldn’t make Trump hesitate in the slightest. Trump is highly unlikely to actually do such a thing, yes but in the end, the guy with the army and no concern for the law beats the guy with a big bank account every time. Just ask all the Russian oligarchs who “fell out of windows” how well money works against brute force. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210.md?page=31) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-washington-post-democracy-dies-with-us/1009210.md?page=33)