Did the Post really write that "Storytelling" should “bring a relentless investigative spirit, backed by credible sources, to deliver impactful stories in formats the world wants”? That sentence has two problems: (1) saying that storytelling should tell stories, and (2) using the ugliest, most horrible word in the language: "impactful." I wish that I hadn't already cancelled my Post subscription, so that I could do so now.
you would think that, but maybe you've never sat through a meeting populated entirely by marketing copywriters. I can picture my boss's eyes misting over in awe.
Today’s posting has actually made me weep. Yesterday’s came close, but today pushed me over. It seems, perhaps, melodramatic, but I can’t help but feel that we are witnessing, in real time, the heart being amputated from our nation. There is such horror to it. Such cold, cold horror.
Two days ago, reading in another Substack column a series of quotes from actual elected officials shamelessly endorsing partisan conditions on disaster aid to those devastated by fire in California…WHO THE FUCK ARE WE BECOMING???
I had a sense of this under Trump 1 when I went to port Isabel in Texas to interview parents whose children had been stolen from them, parents who were then imprisoned and - having no knowledge of where or how their children were, even if they were alive - were slated to be deported, absent their children, back to their countries of origin. At the time I wished that a camera and microphone had been set up to record the bottomless pit of human suffering that I was witnessing. I was certain that if Americans could see it for themselves, could hear the stories, connect as parents to the pain of these parents, they would rise up and demand change. I no longer trust in that optimism.
This emptiness, this inhumanity, this heartlessness has infected our populace.
I hope that this reminder doesn’t cause more weeping, although it brings me close to tears: My first inkling of how awful our country’s “leaders” could be was when President Obama tried his best to do the right thing after Sandy Hook and was denied being able to do anything. Unbelievable. And Alec Jones made up some of the worst, most painful lies about it and continued to shout that b.s for years.
According to Wikipedia's "Trump administration family separation policy," the ACLU estimated in March 2024 that 2,000 of the children Trump kidnapped have still not been found.
I was the mental health advisor to the Flores attorneys and met with these children. The deliberate, sadistic damage done to children and families in those years represented crimes against humanity. What’s coming will be worse.
I find that the Trump cabinet picks are about as bad I expected. Very few people with any amount of expertise or integrity are going to take a job in this cluster**** of an administration. We know from the last time around that expertise and experience are an insult to Trump's quivering mound of insecurities. So we're left with true believers, who really do think that Trump is brilliant and who are willing to swear loyalty to the would-be king. Few Trump appointees are going to be good in any meaningful sense of the word, so what we're left with is varying shades of bad. Some are worse than others and truly dangerous. Hegseth's confirmation, for example, could lead us to World War III and if RFK Jr. has his way, children will start dying of preventable diseases and the milk supply will be lethal. I never thought I'd say this, though: Marco Rubio may be the best of a very bad lot.
Years ago when I subscribed on the online Post, the form had a blank asking why I was exchanging my bucks for their pixels. It was, I told them, because I didn't want to miss anything Gene Weingarten wrote and I liked access to his extended magazine features. Since then, I've also appreciated the fine reporting on its news pages and opinions by its columnists. I heard the incomparable Marty Baron during the first Trump reign explain that the paper was not at war, but at work. So when the Post eased Gene out, I kept my subscription. I'm still keeping it because there is still outstanding reporting and opinion pieces, despite noticeable erosion. But if the reporting declines and defers to the Orange One and the editorial page loses more of its sharp and biting columnists -- Ruth Marcus, E.J. Dionne, Alexandra Petri, Catherine Rampell, Eugene Robinson, and others -- I'll be gone. Dana Milbank gets special recognition for continually venturing into the inmate-run asylum that is the U.S. House and refusing to sanewash anything, always pointing out how delusional and divorced from reality the various MAGA-inspired actions and utterances are. BTW, mission statements are no something imposed from on high. They're supposed to give everyone a stake in the enterprise and the best ones are generated bottom up, not top down.
Petri's on maternity leave. I think it's a toss-up whether or not she'll return. I give 10-1 that she will be "downsized" before her three months are up.
If she is let go during her maternity leave, her severance package will need to be very, very generous to preclude the appearance of gender discrimination.
Why am I not surprised that sloganeering has replaced a detailed and cogent strategy --- starting with something that used to be called responsible journalism --- at the newspaper formerly known as The Washington Post? All in keeping with the now organizational bent knee. I believe the Perot "giant sucking sound" is the appropriate analog here. Or perhaps just as appropriate Macbeth, and his speech: "It is a tale/ Told by an idiot,/ full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing."
Up the Downstaircase is still the best novel about the realities of public school teaching and the inanity of bureaucracy in schools. It’s shocking that 60+ years later so little has changed and it still resonates.
I think you've nailed it, Gene. The answer is that the Post is going Substack. Online, for free you can get the "Metro" edition (gardening, toll increases, power failures, along with all the advertising except Help Wanted). All articles written by AI. For $100/month, you get the "Governing" edition, a selection of unedited press releases from national and state governments and elected and appointed officials. Plus crosswords and comics (but not the left-wing ones). For $500/month, you get the "Inside Scoop" edition, comprised of items intentionally leaked by those in power (also unedited) and Congressional votes on the floor and in committee. Also, current openings from the Plum Book. For $1000/month, there's the "Power" edition, including unapproved leaks (still unedited) and speculation rewritten from other publications about upcoming political machinations and who's sleeping with whom, all from a point-of-view approved by Jeff Bezos; this is hand-delivered to your home or office, fresh from the delivery person's home computer printer. Finally, for $5000/month is the "Official" edition, praising the administration in Jeff's own words. No printing, no investigative reporters, just like TV news.
Please delete this comment, Mad Chatter. It is obviously a well thought out business plan -- and we shouldn't let it fall into the hands of WaPi management!!
The Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries “sought to replace irrational beliefs and Medieval superstition with reason and new theories about the rights of humans.” I feel like we’re in an age that’s doing that in reverse. What’s the best term for that?
The powers-that-be at the paper formerly known as the WaPo haven't a clue. It is rapidly becoming akin to a movie set facade proclaiming major newspaper supported by some 2 x 4s and nothing behind it. They seem determined to maintain the illusion that it will be business as usual, when with rapidly dwindling exceptions, it is anything but already. As much as it pains me to say it, break it up and sell subscriptions to the various pieces or sell it, if one emerges, to a group that both understands and respects the news business and the tech needed today. What is more painful to watch is it gasping for breath on life support. As I've said before, there is no mythical center however many consultants are handsomely paid to promote that as if it were the Holy Grail. There is (or should be) only fair and responsible journalism.
“Democracy Dies in Darkness” - once our motto, now our mission.
Their hands are on the light switch.
Bingo.
excellent
Did the Post really write that "Storytelling" should “bring a relentless investigative spirit, backed by credible sources, to deliver impactful stories in formats the world wants”? That sentence has two problems: (1) saying that storytelling should tell stories, and (2) using the ugliest, most horrible word in the language: "impactful." I wish that I hadn't already cancelled my Post subscription, so that I could do so now.
That sentence immediately jumped out to me as AI-generated tripe.
you would think that, but maybe you've never sat through a meeting populated entirely by marketing copywriters. I can picture my boss's eyes misting over in awe.
Today’s posting has actually made me weep. Yesterday’s came close, but today pushed me over. It seems, perhaps, melodramatic, but I can’t help but feel that we are witnessing, in real time, the heart being amputated from our nation. There is such horror to it. Such cold, cold horror.
Two days ago, reading in another Substack column a series of quotes from actual elected officials shamelessly endorsing partisan conditions on disaster aid to those devastated by fire in California…WHO THE FUCK ARE WE BECOMING???
I had a sense of this under Trump 1 when I went to port Isabel in Texas to interview parents whose children had been stolen from them, parents who were then imprisoned and - having no knowledge of where or how their children were, even if they were alive - were slated to be deported, absent their children, back to their countries of origin. At the time I wished that a camera and microphone had been set up to record the bottomless pit of human suffering that I was witnessing. I was certain that if Americans could see it for themselves, could hear the stories, connect as parents to the pain of these parents, they would rise up and demand change. I no longer trust in that optimism.
This emptiness, this inhumanity, this heartlessness has infected our populace.
I hope that this reminder doesn’t cause more weeping, although it brings me close to tears: My first inkling of how awful our country’s “leaders” could be was when President Obama tried his best to do the right thing after Sandy Hook and was denied being able to do anything. Unbelievable. And Alec Jones made up some of the worst, most painful lies about it and continued to shout that b.s for years.
According to Wikipedia's "Trump administration family separation policy," the ACLU estimated in March 2024 that 2,000 of the children Trump kidnapped have still not been found.
I was the mental health advisor to the Flores attorneys and met with these children. The deliberate, sadistic damage done to children and families in those years represented crimes against humanity. What’s coming will be worse.
What can regular people do to help?
I agree! We can weep together.
I find that the Trump cabinet picks are about as bad I expected. Very few people with any amount of expertise or integrity are going to take a job in this cluster**** of an administration. We know from the last time around that expertise and experience are an insult to Trump's quivering mound of insecurities. So we're left with true believers, who really do think that Trump is brilliant and who are willing to swear loyalty to the would-be king. Few Trump appointees are going to be good in any meaningful sense of the word, so what we're left with is varying shades of bad. Some are worse than others and truly dangerous. Hegseth's confirmation, for example, could lead us to World War III and if RFK Jr. has his way, children will start dying of preventable diseases and the milk supply will be lethal. I never thought I'd say this, though: Marco Rubio may be the best of a very bad lot.
Years ago when I subscribed on the online Post, the form had a blank asking why I was exchanging my bucks for their pixels. It was, I told them, because I didn't want to miss anything Gene Weingarten wrote and I liked access to his extended magazine features. Since then, I've also appreciated the fine reporting on its news pages and opinions by its columnists. I heard the incomparable Marty Baron during the first Trump reign explain that the paper was not at war, but at work. So when the Post eased Gene out, I kept my subscription. I'm still keeping it because there is still outstanding reporting and opinion pieces, despite noticeable erosion. But if the reporting declines and defers to the Orange One and the editorial page loses more of its sharp and biting columnists -- Ruth Marcus, E.J. Dionne, Alexandra Petri, Catherine Rampell, Eugene Robinson, and others -- I'll be gone. Dana Milbank gets special recognition for continually venturing into the inmate-run asylum that is the U.S. House and refusing to sanewash anything, always pointing out how delusional and divorced from reality the various MAGA-inspired actions and utterances are. BTW, mission statements are no something imposed from on high. They're supposed to give everyone a stake in the enterprise and the best ones are generated bottom up, not top down.
Petri's on maternity leave. I think it's a toss-up whether or not she'll return. I give 10-1 that she will be "downsized" before her three months are up.
If she is let go during her maternity leave, her severance package will need to be very, very generous to preclude the appearance of gender discrimination.
Do you really think Bezos gives a shit about "gender discrimination"?
Or maybe: "Democracy? Democracy!? We don't need no stinkin' democracy!"
l thought News? Fuck Yeah! and All the News by Writers Who Haven't Quit were amusing slogans to replace Democracy Dies in Darkness for the WAPO.
"deliver impactful stories in formats the world wants." Exactly what journalism isn't.
That is even worse than the cowardly bullshit of "Fair and Balanced."
T
"...in formats the world wants."
It's called pandering to the lowest common denominator.
'Wapo Dies In Shame'
Why am I not surprised that sloganeering has replaced a detailed and cogent strategy --- starting with something that used to be called responsible journalism --- at the newspaper formerly known as The Washington Post? All in keeping with the now organizational bent knee. I believe the Perot "giant sucking sound" is the appropriate analog here. Or perhaps just as appropriate Macbeth, and his speech: "It is a tale/ Told by an idiot,/ full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing."
That's life.
“Autocracy Thrives on Darkness”
Up the Downstaircase is still the best novel about the realities of public school teaching and the inanity of bureaucracy in schools. It’s shocking that 60+ years later so little has changed and it still resonates.
The new WaPo mission makes me want to puke.
Let it be a challenge to you.
FTW!
I think you've nailed it, Gene. The answer is that the Post is going Substack. Online, for free you can get the "Metro" edition (gardening, toll increases, power failures, along with all the advertising except Help Wanted). All articles written by AI. For $100/month, you get the "Governing" edition, a selection of unedited press releases from national and state governments and elected and appointed officials. Plus crosswords and comics (but not the left-wing ones). For $500/month, you get the "Inside Scoop" edition, comprised of items intentionally leaked by those in power (also unedited) and Congressional votes on the floor and in committee. Also, current openings from the Plum Book. For $1000/month, there's the "Power" edition, including unapproved leaks (still unedited) and speculation rewritten from other publications about upcoming political machinations and who's sleeping with whom, all from a point-of-view approved by Jeff Bezos; this is hand-delivered to your home or office, fresh from the delivery person's home computer printer. Finally, for $5000/month is the "Official" edition, praising the administration in Jeff's own words. No printing, no investigative reporters, just like TV news.
Please delete this comment, Mad Chatter. It is obviously a well thought out business plan -- and we shouldn't let it fall into the hands of WaPi management!!
The Age of Enlightenment in the 17th and 18th centuries “sought to replace irrational beliefs and Medieval superstition with reason and new theories about the rights of humans.” I feel like we’re in an age that’s doing that in reverse. What’s the best term for that?
The Kid Rock of Newspapers is pretty funny.
The powers-that-be at the paper formerly known as the WaPo haven't a clue. It is rapidly becoming akin to a movie set facade proclaiming major newspaper supported by some 2 x 4s and nothing behind it. They seem determined to maintain the illusion that it will be business as usual, when with rapidly dwindling exceptions, it is anything but already. As much as it pains me to say it, break it up and sell subscriptions to the various pieces or sell it, if one emerges, to a group that both understands and respects the news business and the tech needed today. What is more painful to watch is it gasping for breath on life support. As I've said before, there is no mythical center however many consultants are handsomely paid to promote that as if it were the Holy Grail. There is (or should be) only fair and responsible journalism.
The Fourth Estate reduced to a Potemkin village.
And encouraged to acquire Dead Souls.