A once-proud bastion of journalism, WaPo has devolved into a clown show.
It is the paper built on the heritage of Woodward and Bernstein, of the Watergate scandal and the Pentagon Papers. Names like Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham hang above Washington, D.C., to this day. Movies have been made centered on the Washington Post newsroom.
But today, the news outlet is closer to resembling a three-camera comedy filmed before a live studio audience. Once regarded as the paper of record in our nation’s capital, it has become in recent years a source of mockery. What had previously been seen as the paragon of journalism is today a case study of media mirth.
It’s where Jennifer Rubin pens pieces that would be embarrassing to anyone in possession of the ability to feel shame. It is where the truth-averse Glenn Kessler plies his trade as a ‘fact’-checker, and Max Boot rewrites the same column-once a week-decrying Trump and the Republicans. Today, reading the paper is like visiting a home that has not updated the photos on the mantle since the 1980s, a place with framed accomplishments from generations past, and dotted with trophies from long-matriculated schools.
As morosely comical as things have become, this week was especially bad for the Post. Things began poorly with a strained attempt to deflect the nation’s horrendous economic conditions away from the president. In pieces dripping with condescension and bolstered with sub-Schoolhouse Rock animation, you could almost feel them patting readers on the head as the overarching message they were delivering was, “Don’t blame Joe.”
It is a challenging time to try to make sense of the U.S. economy, with trends from persistent inflation to soaring gas prices creating a feeling of uncertainty for many Americans. https://t.co/uLGTlCVRCz
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 1, 2022