Washington Post Is Failing But Some Staffers Are Only Concerned With Diversity
The Washington Post lost $77 million last year. The newspaper has shed half its audience since 2020. Changes need to be made, immediately.
Yet staffers at the Post have more pressing concerns than their company's survival – like diversity.
Sunday night, Sally Buzbee abruptly resigned as executive editor. A subsequent staff meeting Monday saw an uproar over her replacements: two white men.
Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis told the staff it was time to take "decisive, urgent, action to set us on a different path." A reporter then interrupted him and asked whether "any women or people or color were interviewed and seriously considered for either of these positions."
According to Vanity Fair, the question "elicited applause" from other writers.
The report adds that staffers wanted "things to stay how they were, with diversity and social justice at the core of the newsroom's operation."
Got that?
Journalists for The Washington Post would rather the outlet continue to lose high-eight figures a year so long as diversity is the priority. Clearly, those journalists are not serious people.
The Post owned the Watergate beat in 1972 with some of the most influential reporting in the history of American politics. How would the current Post staff handle such essential reporting?
HBO host Bill Maher explained last year:
"If someone named Deep Throat called today and wanted to meet, this crew of emotional hemophiliacs would have an anxiety attack and report to HR they didn’t feel safe."
Especially Washington Post tech reporter, Tayor Lorenz.
The building of the Washington Post newspaper headquarter is seen on K Street in Washington DC on May 16, 2019. - The Washington Post is a major American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., with a particular emphasis on national politics and the federal government. It has the largest circulation in the Washington metropolitan area. (Photo by Eric BARADAT / AFP) (Photo by ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)
A Donald Trump presidency could return the Post to its pre-2020 state of profitability. Though we aren't so sure it would.
During Trump's presidency, the Washington Post exposed itself as shamefully filled with propaganda. The outlet was among the chief spreaders of the conspiracy that Trump colluded with Russia to rig the 2016 election.
Specifically, the Post dubiously reported on an interaction between the Trump campaign and senior Russian intelligence officials.
The paper exchanged credibility for partisanship.
The Post is also one of the main factors in a recent Gallup poll that found only 15% of American adults trust major U.S. newspapers. There are consequences of devaluing the truth.
The Post now bears those consequences.
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is one of the richest men in the world. But no one stomachs losing money for long, especially billionaires.
Staffers should be concerned about Bezos selling the Post to some AI affiliation firm and each of them losing their job – not the skin colors and genders of the new people in charge.