The Post eventually seeded the “Bush lied and people died” narrative as it moved further and further away from journalism, culminating in complete toadying during the Obama years. Sensing there was profit in Trump sabotage, the paper adopted an aggressive anti-Trump editorial mission during President Donald Trump’s first term, resorting to the ironic slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness”—pretty ballsy for a paper that carried on the Russiagate hoax, buried the Hunter Biden laptop story and conspired to cover up Biden’s dementia.
Paid subscriptions surged for the paper during the post 2016 election freakout, but when President Joe Biden took over and the January 6 riot was assumed to have banished the Evil Orange Man, dedication to the #2 “resistance” paper eroded rapidly. Reader interest plummeted from a high of 110 million unique monthly users in January 2021 to 62 million in January 2026.
Awww. Couldn’t happen to a nicer paper.
This week’s purge ends sports reporting, the books section, much of the foreign coverage and more. Stein’s statement to the contrary, the Post’s demise is substantially the fault of the unethical journalists the Post accumulated and pandered to. Far from upholding “the truest and most noble callings” of journalism, they were openly biased and smug about it.
Imagine: the staff threw a tantrum because Bezos decided that the Post should not endorse Kamala Harris, a fraud, an incompetent, a DEI product of an undemocratic nomination and a co-conspirator in hiding the fact that unelected operatives were running the Presidency while the official occupant slid into senility.
The Washington Post had, in Trump’s most perceptive description, become an enemy of the people and a travesty of journalism. Let us hope that the journalism profession learns the right lessons from its demise.
Ethics Alarms 
Not to mention his Executive Order 6102, which made ownership of gold (other than nominal amounts in jewelry) illegal. What was the ethical basis for THAT?
Was this meant to go on the next post, about FDR?
Yes, that comment got attached to the wrong post. I reply to the email distribution, rather than “commenting”, which may contribute to my confusion.
Don’t feel bad—I did the same thing yesterday.
“Far from upholding ‘the truest and most noble callings’ of journalism, THEY WERE OPENLY BIASED AND SMUG ABOUT IT.” (bolds/caps/italics mine)
EXHIBIT I: The Campaign To Impeach President Trump Has Begun–WaPo Headline dated 01/20/2017
PWS
“She actually wrote that Vidal’s script was dated and unbelievable, because a Presidential candidate would never lose an election because of character issues, that only his policies mattered. This was, of course, while the Post was licking Bill Clinton’s metaphorical boots.”
Correct. I wonder how the Facebook friend in your most recent entry (who most certainly supported Bill Clinton, right?) would react to being reminded of “It’s the economy, stupid”.
If they decimated them, they only would have laid off 80.
Alert the Times stylebook!
[Harris was] a co-conspirator in hiding the fact that unelected operatives were running the Presidency while the official occupant slid into senility.
And we came too close to her being installed as the next official occupant run by those unelected operatives for another four or eight years.
So funny how salaried, lefty workers think people like Bezos are obligated to give a not insignificant amount of their wealth to causes they like. Clearly, people like Bezos have too much money, so they should re-distribute it as the left sees fit. This is simply wealth redistribution directed by our moral superiors. They are shocked, shocked I tell you that a too rich guy isn’t willing to share. Amusing. In case they haven’t noticed, wealthy people didn’t become wealthy by giving away their money and they are rarely inclined to do so.
“So funny how salaried, lefty workers think people like Bezos are obligated to give a not insignificant amount of their wealth to causes they like.”
It’s not always money, OB, sometimes it’s as simple as referring to a bloodthirsty POS terrorist like Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who offed himself, as an Austere Religious Cleric
And leave it to those social media meanies to (heh!) offer up similar analogies:
“Adolf Hitler, dedicated art enthusiast, animal rights activist, and talented orator, dies at 56“
“Ted Bundy, meticulous researcher, charismatic figure, and Polaroid enthusiast, dead at 42”
PWS
You forgot vegetarian proponent, environmentalist, universal health care pioneer, reproductive health supporter, and ‘community organizer’.
Leftist TwitteX commentary on this leans heavily on the idea that Bezos’ wealth and personal choices in other spending should dictate that he keep the fired deadwood at WaPo employed.