"If you don't get, you don't get it."
That was once the tagline of The Washington Post, and, to be honest, I thought it was pretty clever. They used it during those uncertain times when more and more news was being consumed online, but newspapers seemed loathe to completely give in and, quite literally, stop the presses. If you didn't physically get the newspaper, then you wouldn't "get" what's happening in the world.
Not a bad strategy at that time. (The Post later switched to "Democracy dies in darkness," which is just self-important gobbledygook that was definitely not borne out in its reporting, which has tended in recent times to be an unceasing stream of anti-Donald Trump screeds.)
It seems now, however, that it was The Washington Post itself that didn't "get it." Management of the once-storied newspaper announced Wednesday that it would be cutting a significant number of jobs, including the complete decimation of its sports section (it will now be part of the outlet's “cultural and societal phenomenon” coverage – whatever that is).
Washington Post executive editor Matt Murray apparently was the one chosen to deliver the bad news in a call with staff. Owner Jeff Bezos does not appear to have been involved in handing out the pink slips.
Today is about “positioning ourselves to become more essential to people’s lives, and what is becoming a more crowded, competitive and complicated media landscape, and after some years when, candidly, the Post has struggled to do that,” Murray said, according to Post staff who shared Murray’s remarks on the call under the condition of anonymity.
And, oh, how the teeth are gnashing! It's just not fair!
"This is a tragic day for American journalism, the city of Washington, and the country as a whole. I'm grieving for reporters I love and whose work upheld the truest and most noble callings of the profession," said Jeff Stein, chief economics correspondent for the Post.
"They are being punished for mistakes they did not cause."
Welcome to the real world, toots.
The reactions read a lot like those of federal employees when DOGE came calling last year. There are entire classes of people, such as those in the media and government work, who truly believe they have a right to their jobs. Layoffs and bad corporate decisions are for the working class folks, not the D.C. and New York City elites! They are bemused to find their jobs aren't safe.
Sure, this could simply be a sign that the Post's management couldn't determine the right balance of subscriptions, freebies, paywalls, and the such. Then again, it could be that they're simply a dinosaur lefty rag that couldn't compete in a changing media landscape. They're certainly not going to admit to either.
I don't bemoan the slow demise of the Post, but, growing up in Northern Virginia, it was my hometown newspaper and it's a shame to see it going down in flames like this. My dad and I would fight over the now-torched Sports section for all the latest on the Washington Redskins, but it was actually a Post sports journo who helped kill off our team due to his obnoxious white guilt and disgusting war against the franchise.
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His name is Mike Wise, and he's now long gone from the pages of the Post. But, he did a lot of damage before exiting. Wise covered the 'Skins around the time Bezos purchased the newspaper from the Graham family; he also hosted a show on a local newstalk station. Wise, the whitest man you'll ever see, succumbed to suicidal empathy and refused to call the football by its name. They, instead, became The Washington Football Team. After seeing in print and hearing it on the airwaves enough times, the team itself capitulated and started using that moniker, eventually ending up with the dreadful "Commanders" insult of a team name.
So, it's a self-inflicted wound that is festering at the Post. It may well be terrible decision-making at the top that led to these layoffs, but it's also the media's steadfast refusal to do honest journalism. They'd rather go the Mike Wise route and pander to the left under the guise of being truth tellers. And that's clearly no longer marketable.
Soon, it's entirely possible that no one at all will be "getting" the Washington Post, and they've no one to blame but themselves.
