The Coronavirus has now crept from my left nostril into my brain, where it is annihilating good judgment and exterminating all resolve, including, say, deciding whether to go upstairs to pee, or just stay where I am and hope my jeans and socks are absorbent enough to avoid damaging the floor.
I've been a subscriber to the Post for decades. Also, I like my life to be somewhat consistent; I like a certain sameness that I can control. That's why, when so many were abandoning the Post over the last year, I stayed with it. I thought, surely, it will return to its roots. But yesterday's editorial did me in. I canceled. When they asked why I was canceling, I selected "other", hoping there would be a screen where I could type in why I was leaving. There wasn't. I did get an offer to continue my subscription for about 1/3 of what I've been paying. I declined. I also wrote a reply to the NYT editorial thanking them.
Print subscriber since my childhood - and I'll be 70 next month. I started asking my husband about unsubscribing after they refused to endorse Harris. After the editorial board was spiked he agreed. Our subscription money now goes to various Substacks - often to former WaPo writers with integrity.
I'm 69, and I've subscribed since college I think. I shared a subscription for a while with my mother who passed away a year ago; she got the paper copy and I read online. I guess I'm glad she got to read her Post until she died (which was the day after T's 2nd inauguration)
My mother died in 2015, never knowing that a 🍊🐖 presidency was a possibility. An ardent Democrat; that would have devastated her. I'm sorry for your loss.
My dark humor the day she died was that she couldn't take more than one day of a Trump presidency. She and my father would have been flabbergasted at how far and how fast this country has fallen.
Mat, Thank you for reminding me to cancel the WAPO subscription. I'd quit reading it but hadn't cancelled it! Done! Goodbye and good riddance!!
Mr. Weingarten, Thank you!! As usual, your writing is clear as can be and your meaning spot on!! I honestly could not believe my eyes when I saw yesterday's headlines. You summed it up so well.
Glad I am not alone in my disgust and sadness over the decline of the WaPo.I actually canceled some time ago - effective on Jan. 3rd. Like you, I have received numerous offers to re-subscribe at a discounted rate. I actually sent an email to Bezos - not sure it will ever get read by him, but I have copied it here:
Dear Mr. Bezos –
Until today, the Washington Post has been a part of my life since my family moved to the DC area in 1966 when I was 10 years old. Although we had daily home delivery of the Washington Post, my own newspaper reading habits at that point were admittedly limited to the comics and sports sections. As time passed, my interests expanded to include the front page and business sections. In my later teens, the metro and style sections were added to my daily reading. When my family relocated outside the home delivery service area, my father dutifully went to a local newsstand to purchase the Washington Post. I returned to DC in ’74 to attend university and remained a DC area resident until 1994 when I relocated for work – first to NY, then to Denver and Atlanta – before returning to Maryland in 2017. For this entire span of time, I remained a loyal subscriber and reader of the Post – including the out-of-town editions and the Sunday Post (purchased at local newsstands and bookstores), then online when the Post went digital. Retirement in 2020 brought a relocation to Florida, but my loyalty and subscription to the Post continued. Until today.
This decision was not impulsive, nor driven by a single disagreement such as an editorial decision I found myself at odds with. I did not cancel when you decided the Post would not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Though I disagreed with both the decision and its timing, it is your right as its owner and in line with the onetime policy of your predecessors – the Mayers and Grahams. I did not cancel when columns or long-standing features I found informative and/or entertaining were eliminated. However, the steady stream of departures of experienced, respected journalists and editors, in all departments, has led to a clear and troubling decline in the quality, rigor, and credibility of the paper. Poorly reasoned editorials, sloppy writing and editing, and an apparent shift in editorial philosophy –
disingenuously disguised as a move toward “balance” – have eroded my trust.
Although I submitted my cancellation notice a few weeks ago, the December 25th Editorial Board Opinion piece which somehow manages to conflate healthcare for all (as in the UK) with health insurance for all (i.e., Medicare) certainly reinforced my decision. This example of the deterioration of editorial standards would not withstand scrutiny in a high-school debate. Coupled with your public and financial support of the current administration, the Post now appears less an independent voice than a compliant one. I find this moral and journalistic failure deeply at odds with the values the Washington Post long represented. Like most Americans, my views on issues do not perfectly align with either party – liberal on some and more conservative on others. I welcome disagreement and opposing viewpoints, so a news outlet espousing views I disagree with is something I view as a personal learning opportunity. I do not accept a news outlet that no longer shares fundamental commitments to independence, integrity, and the public interest. For that reason, I can no longer rely on – or support – the Washington Post.
I highly recommend you pick up and read “Personal History” by Katharine Graham. In addition to learning about the challenges and struggles of running a newspaper, it sheds light on some of the moral dilemmas facing those who own them. One passage I will quote – in the hopes you take it to heart – is the following from a 1948 press release by the Washington Post announcing Eugene Mayer and his wife were turning over ownership of the paper to their daughter and son-in-law, Katharine and Phil Graham. The sentiments ring truer now than ever:
To survive, a newspaper must be a commercial success. At the same time a
newspaper has a relation to the public interest which is different from that of other
commercial enterprises. This is more than ever apparent in these days when our
institutions are under the severest trial and closest scrutiny. The citizens of a free
country have to depend on a free press for the information necessary to the
intelligent discharge of their duties of citizenship. That is why the Constitution gives
newspapers express protection from Government interference.
It truly distresses me to conclude the Washington Post no longer is a source upon which we can depend. While the decline of the paper (and the loss of me as a subscriber) will have little impact on your vast material wealth, it will certainly affect your legacy. On that score, history will be unforgiving.
The grand concept of a plan appears to be that the Venezuelan government will just comply with orders from the Extra Duty Secretary out of fear that the Secretary of Lethality will unleash more of whatever that was (it keeps changing). This is treated seriously by some news outlets as “running” a foreign country whose leader was abducted but otherwise shows no sign of having been conquered.
Yep, Jon Stewart alluded to this on a recent Daily Show episode. I'll leave your empire alone if you leave mine alone. And he gets to pretend to be like his authoritarian role models.
Indeed. tRump seems determined to facilitate the regional influence of a troika of major powers, much as Orwell wrote about in "1984," with Oceana, Eurasia, and East Asia.
I was pleased (relative term) that in describing the removal of Maduro and his wife, you used the word all the other sources I've seen seem to be avoiding: kidnapping. Everyone else uses the more neutral "capturing."
Somehow I suspect that if, say, Putin abducted Donny and Melania from Mar-a-Lago, they wouldn't regard the stunt so benevolently. (What a fantasy ...)
Let's see if I understand this weekend's events. After months of shoveling Venezuelans onto transports to fly them out of these United States, Donny has now brought in a couple of them? Illegally? Does Stephen Miller kkknow?
The WaPo and CBS News are, as far as I'm concerned, compromised. State run media. TASS. Pravda. There are many other news sources out there, but more often they're coming from outside the country.
Why just "Essentially, zero"? I wanted to vote "Zero."
I believe Trump -- a phrase I've never used before -- that he committed this crime because he wants Venezuela's oil. But Trump is a complex thinker and might have acted out of multiple motivations. The invasion might also be an attempt to create a distraction from the Epstein files, as well as an attempt to demonstrate the "manliness" of the insecure toddler who in 2016 boasted about the size of his penis.
Little Marco, the Secretary of Everything, with his previously revealed love of typefaces, will undoubtedly ban Venezuela's Bolivar font among his first acts. As for the newspaper formerly known as the WaPo, even George Will who personally advised on the Monroe Doctrine is aghast. Well, as aghast as he can be with his ideological debilities.
"Maduro is an illegitimate, deeply corrupt sack of pus. His regime tortures and murders its critics. His mismanagement and greed have ruined the country’s economy. Hey, he not only tried to steal an election, this guy actually succeeded."
Are you sure you mean Maduro? Or did you mean to type Trump?
Hey Gene, COVID is (relatively) short term, and you’ll recover. Trump is also supposed to be relatively short term, but the recovery will take decades.
How did our attempt to gain strategic control of Iraqi oil turn out? It took more than a decade and billions before it was politically secure (enough) for production to begin in earnest. By some reasonable estimates restoring peak oil production in Venezuela would cost up to $100 billion and take about a decade. And that's assuming there is enough political stability for companies to operate unencumbered during that entire period. A very big assumption. Think we wouldn't put our boots on the ground with almost certainly unfortunate consequences? Think again. They --- the entire landfill of them --- must go.
So, this hour (or I guess now, it's several hours ago...) it's NOT the oil itself ("We don’t need Venezuela’s oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States.”) according to Secretary of Everything, Little Marco Rubio. No, it's to negate or check our adversaries' influence on it. Yeah, that's the ticket. What can possibly go wrong eh?
This suggests the only good possibility that I imagine coming from this: Russia's fragile economy further decaying, leading to the end of their efforts against Ukraine.
I've been a subscriber to the Post for decades. Also, I like my life to be somewhat consistent; I like a certain sameness that I can control. That's why, when so many were abandoning the Post over the last year, I stayed with it. I thought, surely, it will return to its roots. But yesterday's editorial did me in. I canceled. When they asked why I was canceling, I selected "other", hoping there would be a screen where I could type in why I was leaving. There wasn't. I did get an offer to continue my subscription for about 1/3 of what I've been paying. I declined. I also wrote a reply to the NYT editorial thanking them.
Print subscriber since my childhood - and I'll be 70 next month. I started asking my husband about unsubscribing after they refused to endorse Harris. After the editorial board was spiked he agreed. Our subscription money now goes to various Substacks - often to former WaPo writers with integrity.
I'm 69, and I've subscribed since college I think. I shared a subscription for a while with my mother who passed away a year ago; she got the paper copy and I read online. I guess I'm glad she got to read her Post until she died (which was the day after T's 2nd inauguration)
My mother died in 2015, never knowing that a 🍊🐖 presidency was a possibility. An ardent Democrat; that would have devastated her. I'm sorry for your loss.
My dark humor the day she died was that she couldn't take more than one day of a Trump presidency. She and my father would have been flabbergasted at how far and how fast this country has fallen.
I also cancelled my WaPo suscription today. When I received an email confirming my cancellation, I replied with the reason way.
Mat, Thank you for reminding me to cancel the WAPO subscription. I'd quit reading it but hadn't cancelled it! Done! Goodbye and good riddance!!
Mr. Weingarten, Thank you!! As usual, your writing is clear as can be and your meaning spot on!! I honestly could not believe my eyes when I saw yesterday's headlines. You summed it up so well.
Glad I am not alone in my disgust and sadness over the decline of the WaPo.I actually canceled some time ago - effective on Jan. 3rd. Like you, I have received numerous offers to re-subscribe at a discounted rate. I actually sent an email to Bezos - not sure it will ever get read by him, but I have copied it here:
Dear Mr. Bezos –
Until today, the Washington Post has been a part of my life since my family moved to the DC area in 1966 when I was 10 years old. Although we had daily home delivery of the Washington Post, my own newspaper reading habits at that point were admittedly limited to the comics and sports sections. As time passed, my interests expanded to include the front page and business sections. In my later teens, the metro and style sections were added to my daily reading. When my family relocated outside the home delivery service area, my father dutifully went to a local newsstand to purchase the Washington Post. I returned to DC in ’74 to attend university and remained a DC area resident until 1994 when I relocated for work – first to NY, then to Denver and Atlanta – before returning to Maryland in 2017. For this entire span of time, I remained a loyal subscriber and reader of the Post – including the out-of-town editions and the Sunday Post (purchased at local newsstands and bookstores), then online when the Post went digital. Retirement in 2020 brought a relocation to Florida, but my loyalty and subscription to the Post continued. Until today.
This decision was not impulsive, nor driven by a single disagreement such as an editorial decision I found myself at odds with. I did not cancel when you decided the Post would not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. Though I disagreed with both the decision and its timing, it is your right as its owner and in line with the onetime policy of your predecessors – the Mayers and Grahams. I did not cancel when columns or long-standing features I found informative and/or entertaining were eliminated. However, the steady stream of departures of experienced, respected journalists and editors, in all departments, has led to a clear and troubling decline in the quality, rigor, and credibility of the paper. Poorly reasoned editorials, sloppy writing and editing, and an apparent shift in editorial philosophy –
disingenuously disguised as a move toward “balance” – have eroded my trust.
Although I submitted my cancellation notice a few weeks ago, the December 25th Editorial Board Opinion piece which somehow manages to conflate healthcare for all (as in the UK) with health insurance for all (i.e., Medicare) certainly reinforced my decision. This example of the deterioration of editorial standards would not withstand scrutiny in a high-school debate. Coupled with your public and financial support of the current administration, the Post now appears less an independent voice than a compliant one. I find this moral and journalistic failure deeply at odds with the values the Washington Post long represented. Like most Americans, my views on issues do not perfectly align with either party – liberal on some and more conservative on others. I welcome disagreement and opposing viewpoints, so a news outlet espousing views I disagree with is something I view as a personal learning opportunity. I do not accept a news outlet that no longer shares fundamental commitments to independence, integrity, and the public interest. For that reason, I can no longer rely on – or support – the Washington Post.
I highly recommend you pick up and read “Personal History” by Katharine Graham. In addition to learning about the challenges and struggles of running a newspaper, it sheds light on some of the moral dilemmas facing those who own them. One passage I will quote – in the hopes you take it to heart – is the following from a 1948 press release by the Washington Post announcing Eugene Mayer and his wife were turning over ownership of the paper to their daughter and son-in-law, Katharine and Phil Graham. The sentiments ring truer now than ever:
To survive, a newspaper must be a commercial success. At the same time a
newspaper has a relation to the public interest which is different from that of other
commercial enterprises. This is more than ever apparent in these days when our
institutions are under the severest trial and closest scrutiny. The citizens of a free
country have to depend on a free press for the information necessary to the
intelligent discharge of their duties of citizenship. That is why the Constitution gives
newspapers express protection from Government interference.
It truly distresses me to conclude the Washington Post no longer is a source upon which we can depend. While the decline of the paper (and the loss of me as a subscriber) will have little impact on your vast material wealth, it will certainly affect your legacy. On that score, history will be unforgiving.
Sincerely –
Jim
Part II
Here's what I think the plan is: Xi gets Asia; Putin gets Europe; Trump gets the Americas.
Straight out of Nineteen Eighty-Four.
We have always been at war with Eastasia. Time now for Two Minutes Hate.
The grand concept of a plan appears to be that the Venezuelan government will just comply with orders from the Extra Duty Secretary out of fear that the Secretary of Lethality will unleash more of whatever that was (it keeps changing). This is treated seriously by some news outlets as “running” a foreign country whose leader was abducted but otherwise shows no sign of having been conquered.
Yep, Jon Stewart alluded to this on a recent Daily Show episode. I'll leave your empire alone if you leave mine alone. And he gets to pretend to be like his authoritarian role models.
Indeed. tRump seems determined to facilitate the regional influence of a troika of major powers, much as Orwell wrote about in "1984," with Oceana, Eurasia, and East Asia.
Yup. My read as well.
sounds like a scary toss-up in a a really bad game of "Risk".
Wishing you a speedy recovery…from COVID. At least that’s recoverable…
I was pleased (relative term) that in describing the removal of Maduro and his wife, you used the word all the other sources I've seen seem to be avoiding: kidnapping. Everyone else uses the more neutral "capturing."
Somehow I suspect that if, say, Putin abducted Donny and Melania from Mar-a-Lago, they wouldn't regard the stunt so benevolently. (What a fantasy ...)
Of course, we would be cheering in the streets, unlike Venezuela.
The WaPo article looks like it was 99% written by Bezos and Rubio. I wonder how many shares of (potential) oil stock they got for doing it?
Enough to keep Lauren in Silicon and Botox for 10+ years /s
They’re gonna have to make a whole lot more chemicals for them women!
Let's see if I understand this weekend's events. After months of shoveling Venezuelans onto transports to fly them out of these United States, Donny has now brought in a couple of them? Illegally? Does Stephen Miller kkknow?
Andy Borowitz (I think) ran a column extolling Miller's returning Maduro to Venezuela
Good point.
The WaPo and CBS News are, as far as I'm concerned, compromised. State run media. TASS. Pravda. There are many other news sources out there, but more often they're coming from outside the country.
Why just "Essentially, zero"? I wanted to vote "Zero."
I believe Trump -- a phrase I've never used before -- that he committed this crime because he wants Venezuela's oil. But Trump is a complex thinker and might have acted out of multiple motivations. The invasion might also be an attempt to create a distraction from the Epstein files, as well as an attempt to demonstrate the "manliness" of the insecure toddler who in 2016 boasted about the size of his penis.
Trump is a complex thinker?
I didn't know whether there is an emoji for sarcasm, and I didn't think it would be necessary anyway.
/s indicates sarcasm, I think. But you're correct - writing "complex thinker" anywhere close to the name "Trump" is a tell.
The whole invasion and kidnapping are to distract from the Epstein files.
Little Marco, the Secretary of Everything, with his previously revealed love of typefaces, will undoubtedly ban Venezuela's Bolivar font among his first acts. As for the newspaper formerly known as the WaPo, even George Will who personally advised on the Monroe Doctrine is aghast. Well, as aghast as he can be with his ideological debilities.
Somewhere in hell, Allan Dulles is applauding
"Maduro is an illegitimate, deeply corrupt sack of pus. His regime tortures and murders its critics. His mismanagement and greed have ruined the country’s economy. Hey, he not only tried to steal an election, this guy actually succeeded."
Are you sure you mean Maduro? Or did you mean to type Trump?
Mark Carney needs to step up.
Hey Gene, COVID is (relatively) short term, and you’ll recover. Trump is also supposed to be relatively short term, but the recovery will take decades.
One difference: Trump's efforts to steal the election weren't successful.
Were they not? Perhaps not in 2020, but that wasn't the end of the story, was it?
Trump also announced he'll invade Panama next. Coming soon: The Trumpanama Canal.
FUCK the Post. What can they hope to achieve?
Feel better Gene!
I certainly hope that the Venezuelan Incursion does not cause Gianni Infantino to rethink giving Trump-l'œil the inaugural FIFA Peace Prize.
WTF IS WRONG WITH THE CONGRESS?? WHY DOES THE ORANGE TURD KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS CRAP??
WE NEED SUPERMAN OR DEPUTY DOG ….. I’m not waving I’m drowning
How did our attempt to gain strategic control of Iraqi oil turn out? It took more than a decade and billions before it was politically secure (enough) for production to begin in earnest. By some reasonable estimates restoring peak oil production in Venezuela would cost up to $100 billion and take about a decade. And that's assuming there is enough political stability for companies to operate unencumbered during that entire period. A very big assumption. Think we wouldn't put our boots on the ground with almost certainly unfortunate consequences? Think again. They --- the entire landfill of them --- must go.
Septic tank of them....
So, this hour (or I guess now, it's several hours ago...) it's NOT the oil itself ("We don’t need Venezuela’s oil. We have plenty of oil in the United States.”) according to Secretary of Everything, Little Marco Rubio. No, it's to negate or check our adversaries' influence on it. Yeah, that's the ticket. What can possibly go wrong eh?
This suggests the only good possibility that I imagine coming from this: Russia's fragile economy further decaying, leading to the end of their efforts against Ukraine.