22 Comments

I unsubscribed a year ago from WAPO and the nyt. Both orgs have disgraced themselves. Billionaires cannot be allowed to own anything important. Designer clothes and yachts. That’s it.

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Me too. I’ve now unsubscribed from NYT, WaPo, and the L.A. Times (today). I currently subscribe to The Guardian, which has excellent American news coverage.

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... they also (apparently) can "own" "trophy wives" 🤣

🤪🏴‍☠️

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Democracy dies not in darkness, but in false equivalence and "neutrality".

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P.S. I believe false equivalence and neutrality harm not only actual objectivity, but the capacity to prioritize which news items have higher stakes with important consequences. I think objectivity is well worthwhile, but going about it in these ways won't get news orgs there.

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The owner of the LA Times has made the same decision and the head of his editorial team walked out over it. This trend tells us all we need to know about what's coming. It marks the further erosion of democracy. The journalists who remain will be more vulnerable. With the WaPo, the writing was on the wall when the new guy walked in from the world of Murdoch. At the end of the day, it's the owners who are hedging their bets - Bezos and, in the case of the LA Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, who have many other businesses they care much more about.

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The billionaires owning those two papers want to appeal to MAGA and still hold onto their liberal readership. It can’t be done.

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Occam's Razor suggests Bezos was tired of looking at the Post-shaped sinkhole on his balance sheet and hired Willis to work some "British journalism" magic on its circulation. That or he hired a Murdoch minion to make his paper more attractive for a buyout. The refusal to endorse Harris underneath that glib Oxford-fueled word salad contradicts the 1st but not the second. The remaining newspapers all greatly value their fig leaf of "independence" above all else except profit, but this is a declaration of independence from reality itself. You may choose to ignore the Abyss, but the Abyss isn't ignoring you.

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Well said, sir! It reminds me of the alleged comment by a French diplomat that something the Germans did back in the 19th century was "not only wrong but stupid"!

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I subscribed to both the Washington Post and LA Times after Trump's 2016 election, supporting what I thought would be a vigorous, rigorous holding to account a sure to be swarming mess of anti-government, self aggrandizing attitudes by a man most NYers thought was a predatory narcissistic, not just sexual (thank you Page 6!) but in every aspect of his business dealings. The LA Times has certainly done better ever since, but given this terrible decision by both owners to shirk their obligation to offer endorsements of Harris for their readers is incompetent, unconscionable, insulting and deeply cowardly. My subscriptions end tomorrow.

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I started my subscription to the Washington Post in November 2016, days after the election. I was already thinking about cancelling, but this makes it easy.

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I have to admit that I have not cancelled my WaPo subscription. When I went to do it, I discovered that it’s only costing me $3.99/month because I have Amazon Prime. That’s a fraction of what I pay for the NYTimes and Courier-Journal (Louisville’s local paper). Even though Bezos is a spineless wonder, I can afford four dollars a month to help keep a few more good reporters employed.

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This, and the LA Times. What a time to be alive.

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Insane Clown Posse > Washington Post. ICP is brave enough to make endorsements (Harris).

Woop woop!

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What a horrible thing this is. Such a disappointment. Darkness indeed. Cowardice is how I read it.

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Unsubscribed

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Democracy can also die in the full light of day. To counter-quote Leonard Cohen…That’s where the darkness gets in.

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A-yup.

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Spot on!

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WaPo dithers over Kamala's choice of color for the drapes, while Trmp & Co are pouring gasoline all around the foundation so they can burn it to the ground.

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I found this opinion in The Guardian quite good: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/27/polling-has-turned-the-us-election-into-a-game-we-need-to-take-a-reality-check

Democracy dies not so much in darkness, but by money. Democracy is about values. Economic value is just one of those, and it is the one that tends to overwhelm the others, because we humans are so susceptible to being manipulated and money buys influence.

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