They were good during the first Gulf War. It’s been downhill ever since.
I’ll award most of that credit to Peter Arnett and Christiane Amanpour. Lynne Russell gets a nod for when she used to give the camera a sardonic look while reading copy the obviously thought was bullshit, and also playing herself in Tanner ‘88. Beyond that, CNN rapidly became the template for vapid ‘expert analysis’ of five pundits sitting around a table repeating each others at best semi-informed bullshit, and also promulgating Crossfire on the public, thus reinforcing the notion that all issues have a bipolar spectrum of view which are best debated from the extremes and then sent to “Spin Alley” to homogenize the result into a easily digestible pap for viewers.
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Anyone who can rub together enough brain cells to muster a Google search can read unlimited wapo articles without an account or guest link.
Yes, you have to search for it yourself, per mod decree.
But if you want his content without sending Jeffie B a dime, you can do so without wasting space here about how it’s making you create an account. It’s not.
They do give found object Scott Jennings a reason to exist.
Which is why I’m more about the vintage (vintage newspapers, and vintage local and network TV newscasts and radio airchecks on YouTube): because you actually were informed at the end of the day when you saw those, and they brought it to you what actually was happening, instead of what they thought was happening or what they would have liked to see happening.
Or now, thanks to targeted media, what they think you would like to have happened.
More like “what they want you to think actually happened”.
Probably a lot closer to that.
“APPEARS” to be illegal, Bezos?
Or as Timothy Snyder might have written if he’d been specifically addressing Bezos:
“Do not be a mealy-mouthed appeasing collaborator in advance.”
You left out “lickspittle”.
That’s a fine word that deserves a full revival during the current unpleasantness.
https://thehill.com/media/5148497-washington-post-backs-out-of-fire-elon-musk-ad-order/
So a group wanted an ad critical of Musk, run as a wrap on the paper. WaPo said no.
And while WaPo said ‘no’ to the ad about Musk-running-Trump, they said ‘YES YES’ to an ad that claims—without evidence—that democracy advocate Marc Elias is a ‘racist’ ‘suppressor’ of voting:
Is there really any further point in wasting the energy to be outraged about the swing the Washington Post has taken? Jeff Bezos jumped in bed with Trump as soon as it was clear that he was favored in the election and that Trump would wreck vengeance on his pet rocket company (as if Elon is going to let NASA or the Department of Defense give Blue Origin any serious contacts) and has turned the newspaper into a just-barely-concealed cheering section for Trump, driving away numerous valued staff and contributors. As far as I am concerned, they might as well just hand over control to Hugh Hewitt and let him spew his nonsensical bullshit on every page so at least the pro-authoritarian bias will be clear.
Stranger
I feel that way as well. It’s a lost cause. This periodical is better used for wiping your ass if you run out of toilet paper.
I had the app on my phone a few years ago, but found it ad-filled rubbish. It hasn’t been installed for years. But I took the time to recently log onto google apps to give it a lovely 1 star review based on the editorial changes.
It’s a tiny, tiny poke in the eye, but it made me feel better.
Huh. I still have the app on my phone. It’s a perfectly ordinary newspaper app. It’s never given me any trouble.
I’m very sad the paper has gone to hell, though.
If I wanted to be more fair than I feel at the moment, I’d say that the phone app was adequate, not particularly worse than other news apps, though the ads were a bit intrusive. But I was also using it on my smartwatch, and that was absolutely a bug-ridden, crash/lockup ridden mess of software that they shouldn’t have bothered with. Which, again, if I was to be un-Pit-like fair, isn’t uncommon for a lot of smartphone apps that are a major afterthought.
But I don’t need to be generous right now, when they’re rotting at an accelerating rate from the top down.
I’m letting my subscription expire and turned off automatic renewal, so in a few days no more WashPost. At this point about the only thing I’ll miss is Carolyn Hax’s agony column and the comments thereon – although recently the powers that be at the paper decided to change the comments format from a clean, simple, easily used setup to a clumsy, stupid “improvement” that has seen a tremendous drop in participation.
I’m pretty sure Carolyn Hax can set up her own Substack and do better than whatever she’s getting from the Post just based upon reader interactions and pics of ‘Ned’ alone. The rest of their advice columnists are basically good for lining the litter pan.
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