The Washington Post began trying out a new mission statement this week: “Riveting Storytelling for All of America.” It comes amid turmoil in the newsroom.
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What the hell is this? If I want riveting storytelling, I'll read a book. I want the news. For god's sake, it's right in the name - NEWSpaper. If this is the road they're choosing to go down, I hope the Washington Post goes down in flames.
If the Post wants storytelling they should be seeking novelists to print. A news org reports facts that help their readers understand what's happening.
And over the past couple of days, what I gather from most of the comments on BlueSky is, that liberals will read the Washington Post only if liberals are always portrayed as the good guys.
Although its sounds like you could be the exception, and are willing to step outside the box.
In a news organization, the boss/employee dynamic is a bit different — the owner of a newspaper telling an employee to change what they have written to align with his/her political preferences or to avoid embarrassing him/her is not appropriate in a real news shop.
"Liberals will read the Washington Post" when they stop catering to oligarchs
When they stop both-siding horrible actions that hurt many by claiming bad people don't mean they to be bad, they just have a different point of view which is now the intent behind "storytelling"
They've finally admitted they're not journalists, reporting the news. They're a bunch of wannabe novelists...telling stories. Weaving narratives. Not particularly well, which is why they flunked creative writing classes in school.
If I wanted stories I would subscribe to The New Yorker. News. Facts. Investigative journalism. THAT is what I want from a major paper of record. Not a fucking Highlights magazine.
This Rupert Murdoch trainee brought into lead #WAPO by #Bozo is really having an impact. Subscribers leaving in droves. Prized columnists leaving the building in disgust. Yeah Jeff, you're a bozo alright.
They are admitting it’s not about truth and light, but rather storytelling.
Wake up call for you, NYT. After helping 45 get elected you’d better step up & offer some pushback to his authoritarian ambitions.
So the @washingtonpost.com has changed their mission statement from "Democracy Dies in Darkness" to "Riveting Storytelling for All of America". Well at least they are honest about NOT defending democracy anymore.
I realize this isn’t the intent, but this sounds a lot like “actual journalism is hard, complicated and controversial so we’ve just decided to start making things up.”
A new outlet for fan fiction? Who knows, perhaps they’ll add poetry to their story collections?
Wait! What? “Storytelling”! Well…..got give em credit for admitting it and just putting it out there. I guess Bezos agrees with Zuckerberg that there is no value in factchecking. Sheesh.
So, the Washington Post’s goal is to become a bland, middle market, Middle America, soft serve-and-Wonderbread newspaper? Doesn’t Gannett already dominate that market?
People will not be very interested in "riveting story telling" when they can feel the "collateral damage" of these stories in their financial siuation, their entitlements, their lack of public service, their insurance.
Staying in touch with the base.
Signaling on ignored problems.
Plans to solve the problem.
Considerations pro & con on proposed plans.
What plan was choosen and why.
Monitoring and corrections on the implementation of the plans.
That's where this all went wrong. If the Post had just slowly dripped out the story and made sure to make it a "both sides" kind of thing, their financial position could have been much better and it might not have been such a tempting target for Bezos to buy.
Honestly, there should be turmoil in yours as well. You held water for this administration and gave a voice to people who wanted to do others harm without criticism or correction. As if their voices carried water of equal weight and should be given equal voice. Our vaunted clicks will doom us all.
The WAPO is NOT trustworthy anymore. Newsrooms MUST BE OUT OF REACH of their billionaires owners. The editorial team must be committed to the truth no matter what, to checked facts, no bots, AI as tool, not as writer (it can use fake news as source or even fabricate source). True free press!
This is code for "we want to attract conservative readers." I predict it will work about as well as every newspaper's "We want to attract younger readers" attempts.
We’re not falling for this ridiculous marketing op. The Washington Post, The New York Times, and many of their peers have utterly and cynically deserted their fundamental duties.
Greed and cowardice have rendered these former institutions of truth nothing more than shameless propaganda machines.
Only matters what you can SELL. That was Trump's TV show, his campaign schtick, and his plan for the US government. This 'motto' (and scrapping the defense of democracy one) seems to reinforce it. 🤮
So funny since the owner of the WP is going to be on the dais during the inauguration. Reason he is there . . . he paid a million dollars for a ticket plus $40 million to Melania plus more to be announced. It will never be all of America - only what the Felon wants. Lies bought and sold by Bezos.
Community notes : after democracy died in plain daylight, by the hand of the Putin-affiliated tech oligarchs, the Wapo will help the new American Kings make their subjects think they are sleepwalking and all they need to be happy is buy a new red hat.
Hmm, they wanna reach the modern conservative? Well, factually supported journalism seems to be off the table. Have they considered just making sh... stuff up? No idea too absurd!
Thanks for telling this story. It's a good one for NYT to do a little reflection on. From here it seems like some other paper will be writing similarly about the NYT at some point
Well, now that Lauren Sanchez' baller has decided it's time for darkness, the WaPo needs to refocus. And so do you, #NYT. You're every bit as culpable.
after Bezos kissed the orange ass, the WP should work on their new image! take the bild in germany or the sun in england as standard! You have now new followers who need less words but a lot of bunny pictures!
Pretty sure that what they mean is "for Real America," meaning those self-satisfied "patriots" who cheered on—then brushed off—a direct attack on democracy.
“Riveting storytelling” is code for polarizing disinformation. “For all Americans” means the Comics section is coming back new and expanded. Junior Jumble brought to you by Q Anon.
I don’t want you tell me stories…I have a memaw for that. I want you to report the fucking news, without covering up for your buddies and fellow oligarchs
Given that “telling a story“ means lying, perhaps the Post’s new slogan is fitting. After all, they still let people like Marc Thiessen write columns for them.
Hah, "all of americans" means only maga.. and they dont give a fuck if progressive boycott them because progressives will be in camps soon so fuck it. Wait was that the quiet part?
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964.
Pass it on.
Tell the Washington Post we don’t want a damn story, we want the news. A newspaper is simply a paper with the news printed on it, as Joe Friday said “ just the facts”.
At least WaPo finally admits they're telling stories. They certainly abandoned giving us the news some time ago. Canceled my subscription some time ago. ProPublic and The Contrarian are far more useful.
Comments
Is JD Vance working for them?
Washington Post - Democracy died in darkness & We helped, now we need a new audience but we’ll have to dumb it WTF down
The real issue is that every good story has a protagonist and antagonist...the classic good vs bad.
What they are saying is their stories will not follow that typical structure.
Although its sounds like you could be the exception, and are willing to step outside the box.
Talk about storytelling.
🙄
Entitlement, if taken to extremes becomes a disease.
By the way I've never been fired but have quit 2 jobs because they were not a good fit for my wants and needs.
When they stop both-siding horrible actions that hurt many by claiming bad people don't mean they to be bad, they just have a different point of view which is now the intent behind "storytelling"
And the irony of The New York Times, who is creating that same darkness, reporting on this.
.
This is terrible
They are acknowledging that
They are pandering
.
At least they gave up on "Democracy Dies in Darkness" once they leaned into the darkness.
I cancelled when Bezos nixed the Pres. endorsement in 2024.
Wake up call for you, NYT. After helping 45 get elected you’d better step up & offer some pushback to his authoritarian ambitions.
Zombie Fourth Estate kkkristofascism collaborators need to be destroyed by any means available.
Democracy Submerges into Dumbness
A new outlet for fan fiction? Who knows, perhaps they’ll add poetry to their story collections?
People will not be very interested in "riveting story telling" when they can feel the "collateral damage" of these stories in their financial siuation, their entitlements, their lack of public service, their insurance.
People having 'skin in the game !
Staying in touch with the base.
Signaling on ignored problems.
Plans to solve the problem.
Considerations pro & con on proposed plans.
What plan was choosen and why.
Monitoring and corrections on the implementation of the plans.
Support https://www.propublica.org/series/the-secret-irs-files
Please do it quickly to create some room for actual journalists.
Greed and cowardice have rendered these former institutions of truth nothing more than shameless propaganda machines.
Can't verify or disprove. Like the phrases "Lotta people think" or "Many people tell me". Trumpian Mission Statement.
So the Washington Post has become “People Magazine”.
The Amazon Post 📰
'No, but it's riveting, isn't it?
Both rags got us Trump while their editors, writers, and staff clutched their pearls and wrung their hands.
https://nypost.com/2025/01/13/media/washington-post-traffic-craters-loses-100m-amid-identity-crisis-as-talent-readers-flee-reports/#:~:text=The%20Washington%20Post's%20readership%20reportedly,an%20exodus%20of%20top%20talent.
It wasn’t great when you all bought the Boston Globe. But now it’s a lack of journalistic integrity
They should stick to their other mission statement:
Democracy dies in darkness.
That's closer to what Bezos is actually doing.
Journalists are supposed to tell the truth.
We have learned through many proud years that Democracy dies in Darkness!
The times they are a changing 🔥🇺🇸😳
The oligarchy and its tools of disinfo, manipulation and control must be mercilessly destroyed.
(as Biden said in his farewell: May God Protect Truth)
WaPo NYT: you can both go fuck yourselves - this is how the (decent) Germans must have felt.
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964.
Pass it on.
We’re looking for truth and actionable news.
With a pro-democracy bias. Because, ya know, democracy.
Truth to power you corporate douchebags.