Darkness Descends: Chaos Unleashed in the Washington Post Newsroom as Reporters Scramble for Safety!

RR News Update! – June 6th, 2024 Justus Knight

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On today’s broadcast:

Title: Darkness Descends: Chaos Unleashed in the Washington Post Newsroom as Reporters Scramble for Safety!

Description :

Is it darkness yet?

The author of a report from the Washington Journal titled Chaos in WaPo Newsroom as Executive Editor Leaves: ‘I Can’t Sugarcoat It Anymore‘ poses this seemingly ungrammatical question because, for years, The Washington Post has been reminding us that “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” This slogan was adopted in February 2017, just one month after Donald Trump assumed office as America’s 45th president. Quite the timing, but as you know I don’t believe in coincidence.

While democracy hasn’t perished in the intervening years, well until Biden took office, the atmosphere around the Post’s newsroom has certainly darkened. Covering for Biden has become a full time job that has led to zero rewards. Even trying to cover for Cocaine gate absolutely devoid of journalistic integrity. Stripped of the outsized influence the capital’s paper of record enjoyed during the Trump era, with #TheResistance, the Post found itself losing readers and hemorrhaging money at an alarming rate. The situation was dire enough that The New York Times delved into the WaPo’s finances last July, estimating potential losses of $100 million in 2023.

To put this in perspective, such a yearly deficit would amount to 40 percent of the $250 million Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos paid for the Post back in 2013.

Now, we are going to dig even deeper into the fall of the not so great WAPO, and not is all as it appears. It wasn’t only the loss of Trump that resulted in the loss of profit…oh no, it is something far more real, far more vicious and far more irreversible. We’ll be back in just a couple minutes.

Since The New York Times’ exposé shed light on the internal workings of the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” mantra, the situation within the Post’s newsroom has only worsened. Recent events saw the paper’s publisher effectively ousting the executive editor over the weekend, triggering tense exchanges with the paper’s reporters thereafter. The publisher made it clear that he could no longer gloss over the decline in readership and revenue stating according to the article in the New York Times |

“At a contentious staff meeting on Monday, Mr. Lewis defended his business strategy, telling the newsroom that The Post had lost $77 million the previous year, had seen a 50 percent audience decline since 2020 and needed to make radical changes to succeed.”

“Let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around, right?” he said, according to a recording of the meeting. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff.”

According to a report from Vanity Fair, Washington Post publisher Will Lewis had a contentious meeting on Monday morning with Post staff following the departure of executive editor Sally Buzbee on Sunday. It remains uncertain whether Buzbee chose to leave voluntarily or was pushed out, but what’s evident from Charlotte Klein’s piece is that her departure was inevitable.

As per The New York Times, Buzbee reportedly mentioned during a Sunday call with her colleagues that Lewis was pursuing an aggressive strategy to revitalize the paper. However, she noted that despite her preference to stay and help navigate through the challenging period, it became untenable.

Lewis’ strategy involves diversifying into three distinct newsrooms: one for news, one for opinion, and a third focused on service and social media journalism, aimed at engaging audiences not typically inclined to consume news from outlets like the Post, as reported by Vanity Fair.

While the efficacy of this strategy for the Post remains uncertain, it’s evident that decisive action is imperative. Yet, from Vanity Fair’s account of Lewis’ meeting with the newsroom, some members, particularly those inclined towards identity politics, seemed oblivious to the urgency of the moment, leading to chaos at Monday’s meeting following Buzbee’s departure.

Consider the response of one unnamed reporter who expressed dismay over the number of Caucasian males Lewis had brought in to lead the turnaround.

“Everyone was pretty shocked with your email last night,” the reporter remarked, adding, “The most cynical interpretation sort of feels like you chose two of your buddies to come in and help run the Post, and we now have four white men running three newsrooms.” The never ending DEI battle has once again ‘hit the fan’.

Replacing Buzbee on an interim basis is Matt Murray, formerly of The Wall Street Journal, and yes, another white male. Regarding the short notice, Lewis explained that news of Buzbee’s departure had started to leak, prompting swift action to address it.

Lewis is purportedly committed to diversity, acknowledging its lack at the top echelons of the newsroom. However, it’s intriguing how meritocracy prevails when an institution faces dire circumstances.

When asked if “any women or people of color were interviewed and seriously considered for either of these positions” — which prompted applause from the gathered reporters, Lewis responded first by stating if — he said that the search to replace Buzbee “was an iterative, messy process, which I don’t want to go into the details of.” but then dropped bombs on the questioning journalists by stating “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore. So I’ve had to take decisive, urgent action to set us on a different path, sourcing talent that I have worked with that are the best of the best.”

Regarding the “third newsroom” concept, one reporter questioned whether embedding brilliant social and service journalists in the core product would ensure greater readership.

“You haven’t done it,” Lewis retorted. “I’ve listened to the platitudes. Honestly, it’s just not happening.”

“Well, that’s certainly one way to do it,” he continued, emphasizing the need for untapped audiences to be reached.

However, this approach didn’t sit well with the employees, who expressed dissatisfaction with the handling of Buzbee’s departure and the subsequent appointments.

“The fact that Will Lewis keeps going to his network rather than plucking Washington Post leadership implies that he finds everyone lacking, and I think that’s kind of the most disturbing thing,” one staffer remarked.

Another expressed discontent, noting that the first female executive editor of The Washington Post received a brief farewell and is being replaced by more white men.

But what’s the alternative? A supposedly diverse newsroom bleeding money? Such concerns might resonate when profits are healthy, but not when the bottom line is suffering. Because when even the left views you as left, sometimes that far of a position puts you in the crosshairs of not being a non-biased source but rather opinionated news that they have fought so hard against, a recipe for disaster.

The Post, once a bastion of journalistic integrity, now appears to be little more than a philanthropic endeavor for Bezos, who reportedly grows impatient. The era of diversity hires seems to be waning, with a return to individuals who can steer the paper back to prosperity.

At present, however, the paper finds itself perilously close to darkness. Is democracy truly in jeopardy? It’s worth noting that just three days before Buzbee’s departure, a prominent figure in America’s political opposition was convicted on numerous felony counts. The irony is almost too perfect.

I love you all, until next time, Godspeed and God Bless, Justus Knight…signing out.

Justus Knight

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