I get actual journalism there, though. There’s precious little of that in 2018.
No journalism on the Post approaches this level of good. If it did, I’d be happy to pay for it.
I had to cancel my Washington Post subscription after they published that deplorable op-ed about birthright citizenship last week. It’ll take me quite a lot to want to re-subscribe to them.
Op-Ed is literally an acronym of “Opposite the Editorial Page”. It used to be where the editors put stuff that is generally opposite of what they themselves believe but which they give a spot to for “fairness”.
Unlike the NYT, the WaPo doesn’t allow their token wingnut columnist stuff to leak out from the last page and onto the front page.
That’s not quite accurate. Op-ed does indeed stand for “opposite the editorial page,” but that’s a reference to where it appears in print, not a description of the content. Op-ed sections are generally intended to present a range of perspectives, which may support or veer from the editorial board’s beliefs – or address issues that the editorial board hasn’t touched on at all.
There have been a lot of analyses of what the media got wrong in the way they skewed the 2016 campaign coverage. All of those include the Post as part of the analysis, and none of them give the Post an explicit pass on their coverage. So, I’m skeptical that the wing-nut stuff doesn’t leak onto the front page. If employing right wing columnists sells more papers, the slanting news to the right would similarly sell more papers.
Yeah, I like WaPo in general but there’s no way in hell I’m going to help pay Marc Theissen’s salary. If the Washington Post wants my money they can get the authoritarian propaganda off the front page.
In Ted Lieu of WaPo, could I suggest some more reliable media outlets?
There is the reigning 20 year champion:
www.metafilter.com
There’s a pair of army vets talking shit:
And there’s this wonderful guy in the midwest who has been making fun of David Brooks every day for the last decade:
Anyway, those sites all help keep me sane. And I never worry that I’m going to regret my my donations to them 5 years down the road.
A true public service! Thanks for the tip.
WaPo is the best journalism being done today. Their investigative journalists are the top of the field.
That deserves to be supported, because the world will be dramatically worse without it.
Heh. Surprised to see MetaFilter here. But you’re not wrong.
Which oped? I see a few on this topic…
Do you know what I get told on occasion?
“A dog born in a stable isn’t a horse”
Given where this thinking originates, at the further extremes of ethno-nationalism and white supremacy, allowing this as an op-ed is enabling and empowering the very worst of the worst. We aren’t balancing left and right here. Dealing with genocidal maniacs is not something where you weigh one off against the other, or decide who you sell down the river to achieve compromise. We know where appeasement leads.
I agree with Timex on the value of the Post. I’ve always defended the Post to my conservative friends as it being different than the NY Time which allows it liberal bias to get in the way of its news reporting. It’s gotten noticeably better under Bezo’s
The birthright citizenship editorial pissed me off also, but that is a good thing. It was actually the first WaPo editorial this year that pissed me. I think one way to know if you live in an echo chamber is if you don’t disagree with an editorial everyweek, and get really pissed off once a month, then you aren’t getting a properly varied media diet. WaPo doesn’t provide a huge range of opinion extreme opinion but plenty of both center right and center left. I need to read Mother Jones, Vox, Town Hall, and Fox to get my monthly pissed off quota.
This demonstrates a few things:
- Confirmation bias is a hell of a drug, even for otherwise thoughtful intelligent people. I don’t know how anyone after the coverage of the 2016 election can accuse the NYT of letting its “liberal bias” leak into its news reporting. (Not to mention almost anything from the Javanka mouthpiece aka MAGA Habermann, arguably their most high profile “reporter.” )
- The NYT is wasting its time trying to appeal to ‘both sides’ with the ridiculous op-ed writers they’ve hired. They want diversity of opinion, but apparently that only means showcasing different strains of bullshit conservatism (“people accuse us of being racists so we had no choice but to become racists”), where college campuses and a small collection of nutty left wing professors are framed as more a threat to the Republic than the obvious attacks by trump, the obsequious Republican party, and the compliant, complicit national media (in particular the beltway pundits.)
- Equating Vox and Mother Jones to Town Hall or Fox must be some kind of conservative reflex. While the former have obvious liberal bias, at least they source their claims, unlike places like Town Hall or Fox, which uses right wing blogs or the ever popular “people are saying” as proof for their assertions.
Thanks for sharing! I see a few strong views on it in this thread and think it warrants its own discussion.
People are saying that Fox News is a bunch of hate filled garbage, and couldn’t find news if it had a map and clear directions.
I don’t really feel the need to have a quota, but I agree with you here, Strollen. We have some forum members who have grown so much animosity against the current GOP and Trump that they actively promote (at least in comments) that Trump voters should be shunned and relegated to a status akin to putting them in a corner, probably wearing a dunce cap or something.
I do not have that view. A voter is a person, and people still work side by side with the rest of us, or are our neighbors, relatives, and -shocker-, even friends. Without spending time and conversing, this political situation we are in only continues with further polarization.
Like you I try to inject into my data gathering sources from outside where I would normally look: perhaps reading a news article from a site I don’t agree with, listening to a political talk show with bias on the other side, or talking politics with some of my lifelong Republican friends, etc. Trump voters have been characterized here as brainwashed, stupid, stubborn, etc. We must all strive to never fall into a trap of equating our position as so correct that it is above discourse on alternatives.
I sub to WaPo and NYT and appreciate them quite a bit. The reporting from both of them has been exemplary in regards to things happening since the election of Donald Trump. Yet still, I read other sources too. I can only try to be diligent.
I signed up last year when the pandemic started, at $29 for the year it was a no-brainer. Anyway, if others did as well, like me, just a reminder, I was set to be charged $100 for another year on Monday. I tried cancelling my subscription and said it was too expensive, and they offered me another year for $29 again, so I took it. Yay!
Probably the best place for a bump…
If you’re a digital subscriber to the Post like I am via the Amazon Prime discount ($3.99 a month), then you might want to watch your bank account. The price has gone up to $7.99 a month. I didn’t even notice this was on the horizon. They did send out an email about it, but because it was phrased with the subject “Notice Regarding Your Subscription” I probably glazed right over it as spam since that’s typical spam phrasing.
$8 isn’t the end of the world compared to $4. I appreciate the work they do there. I’m not sure though if I need it for $8 a month, especially if we’re going back to the End Times tomorrow.