# When did the Washington Post change their masthead?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 26, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791 "2017-02-26T00:21:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@CC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CC)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791/1 "2017-02-26T00:21:33Z")

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And what did it say before? This seems to be a pretty significant throwdown of a gantlet.

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**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791/2 "2017-02-26T00:42:15Z")

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> [@CC](#):
>
> And what did it say before? This seems to be a pretty significant throwdown of a gantlet.

For those who don’t know, the Post has changed their motto on their website to “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.

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**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791/3 "2017-02-26T01:32:35Z")

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From [the _Washington Post_ itself](https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-washington-posts-new-slogan-turns-out-to-be-an-old-saying/2017/02/23/cb199cda-fa02-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html):

> [@](#):
>
> The Washington Post added a new phrase beneath its online masthead this week [column dated February 24, 2017]…the slogan…will be added to print copies of the paper next week

> [@CC](#):
>
> And what did it say before?

> [@Paul Farhi in The Washington Post](#):
>
> The paper hasn’t had an official slogan in its 140-year existence, although it did get some mileage with a long-running advertising tagline, “If you don’t get it, you don’t get it.”

> [@](#):
>
> This seems to be a pretty significant throwdown of a gantlet.

According to that column, the slogan is not directed at Trump, and the paper decided to come up with a motto “nearly a year ago”.

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**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791/4 "2017-02-26T17:25:53Z")

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Until I read the actual article, I thought it said, “Democracy Lies in Darkness”, which sounds like an epitaph

Dennis.

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**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791/5 "2017-02-26T18:52:35Z")

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Since this has been answered, here’s an amusing tangent:

[15 Metal Albums Whose Titles Are Less Dark Than the Washington Post’s New Motto](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/02/22/_15_classic_metal_albums_whose_titles_are_less_dark_than_the_washington.html)

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**Author:** ![Kiwi\_Fruit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kiwi_fruit/32/12_2.png) [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)\
**Post date:** [February 26, 2017, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-washington-post-change-their-masthead/780791/6 "2017-02-26T21:45:38Z")

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> [@CC](#):
>
> And what did it say before? This seems to be a pretty significant throwdown of a gantlet.

Should this be gauntlet? [It seems like you’re thinking of a challenge being issued, not undergoing criticism or harrassment from several sources in a concentrated period of time.](http://www.grammarbook.com/homonyms/gantlet-gauntlet.asp)