Heartbreak (but also hope) at the still-essential Washington Post

One of the thrills of my life as a newly minted editor in chief at the Buffalo News was attending a very fancy — white tie, no less! — dinner in Washington, DC, and being introduced to Katharine Graham, the publisher of the Washington Post.

Not only had I read and admired her Pulitzer Prize-winning book, “Personal History,” but she served as a role model because of her courage during the publication of the Pentagon Papers and the Post’s Watergate reporting.

More than a decade later, I would come to work at The Post myself under another legendary leader, Marty Baron. It was a dream come true, especially because there was a huge story to cover and comment on — the first Trump administration.

Being in that bustling newsroom, with its extraordinary and growing staff of journalists, was the experience of a lifetime. I left after six years as a media columnist. I called it a self-imposed term limit and I thought I was retiring from the news business. although that wasn’t meant to be.

Now, as I see what’s happening to the Post — the stunning exodus of newsroom talent, the misguided priorities of its editorial pages, and the lack of leadership by its current publisher, Will Lewis — I am in sympathy with the thousands who canceled their subscriptions after the Post killed its endorsement of Kamala Harris last fall. I’m heartbroken when I see that world-class journalists, including sports columnist Sally Jenkins, national security reporter Carol Leonnig, and politics columnist Eugene Robinson, have walked out the door.

I’m stunned when I hear about the one-on-one meetings that the new opinion editor is having with staffers to inform them that what they do is “not aligned” with his priorities.

And yet. There’s still enough left of the Post — its very bones, I hope — that I find much to admire. I’m also hopeful about the leadership on the news side (not the opinion side) of Matt Murray, who came to the Post after holding the top editing job at the Wall Street Journal. And I know that, despite all these high-profile departures, the newsroom is still a robust one, with so many top journalists doing their jobs extremely well. The newsroom headcount is still around 800 — that is huge these days.

Here are some specifics, and I’m including gift links so you can see for yourself:

An exclusive news story published last week in which Post reporters obtained an internal planning road map that shows the strategy behind ICE’s breakneck expansion. “Billions will be spent to reach more than 107,000 beds, including in mega-facilities, tents and at least two new family detention centers.”

An exclusive story in late July that the Smithsonian National Museum of American History had removed references to President Trump’s two impeachments from an exhibit. It was one of many Post scoops about chaos at the Smithsonian and the Kennedy Center.

Deep reporting on how Trump is claiming credit for fixing Social Security even as it speeds toward insolvency.

An investigation into the 13-year search for Austin Tice, the journalist who disappeared.

These are just a few examples among many. This fine work doesn’t excuse, for a minute, the harm done to this storied institution, an American treasure. It doesn’t heal the heartbreak, for me, of seeing what’s happened. But it does provide hope.

I was inspired to write this on Sunday when I thought, for a scary moment, that my favorite book critic, Ron Charles, might have been part of the newsroom exodus. I had just finished reading a novel — “The Sequel,” by Jean Hanff Korelitz — and wanted to know what Charles might have had to say. No such luck. But it did appear that Charles is still there, and I stumbled upon his July review of Gary Shteyngart’s latest noval, “Vera, or Faith.” Read his first few paragraphs and you’ll see what I mean:

Few novelists risk jumping on the runaway horse of contemporary life as recklessly as Gary Shteyngart. For the fiction writer, stuck at the plodding speed of publishing, such a maneuver requires gauging both political velocity and cultural direction. And yet, book after book, Shteyngart arrives just where — and when — we need him to.

Fifteen years ago, his cringingly hilarious “Super Sad True Love Story” depicted a future society hollowed out by social media. In 2018, “Lake Success” satirized the bankrupt materialism of the budding Trump era. And in the fall of 2021, he published a novel about the wild inequities of the covid pandemic — “Our Country Friends” — even while many of us white-collar readers were still happily working from home and complaining about late grocery deliveries

The abiding miracle of Shteyngart’s work is that it seems just as timely as a Shouts & Murmurs gag in this week’s New Yorker while staying fixed to the timeless absurdity of human life. That dexterity speaks to the range of his sympathy and the depth of his attention. It may also stem from being born in the U.S.S.R. — little Igor Shteyngart emigrated to the United States in 1979; he knows in his kishkes how tightly the latest joke is braided through the oldest tragedy.

Great first line; great last line. In short, I still find the Post essential. I’m angry about what’s happening there, which is unnecessary, misguided and destructive. But I’m hopeful that the ship can eventually be righted, and that the paper’s bones — its staff, its history, its very soul — will sail on.

In one other blast of hopefulness — and even delight — I must mention coming across a publication called The Ditch Weekly, on my recent visit to Montauk, the eastern-most tip of Long Island. The free paper is run by local teens, and was the subject of a New York Times article not long ago.

The lead story struck at the very heart of its readers’ interests, and its reporting was a model of fairness: “Smart Phones Banned in Schools.”

 

 

There’s a lot of awful stuff going on right now — in the country and the world — but I’ll take my blasts of hope where I can get them.

On a much more serious subject, readers, I found MAGA-media’s cheerleading coverage of Trump’s failed “summit” with Putin deplorable, and the mainstream coverage to be far too normalizing. By contrast, the straight-talking Sentator Chris Murphy of Connecticut got it right in this social media post and in his appearance on Meet the Press, which is worth your time. “The Putin-Trump meeting was a disaster, as predicted. Putin got everything he wanted: a photo op legitimizing his war crimes, no ceasefire, and no sanctions … Trump’s goal was to keep Putin happy. He succeeded.”

Readers, where did you find the best coverage or commentary of the “summit”? Please share in the comments.

And thank you very much for being here, and for caring about the relationship between the press and democracy, which is the focus of American Crisis. It means a lot. Welcome to newcomers, who can find a summary of my purpose below this smile-inducing comment from a new paid subscriber explaining why she subscribed:

 

 

My background: I am a Lackawanna, NY native who started my career as a summer intern at the Buffalo News, my hometown daily. After years as a reporter and editor, I was named the paper’s first woman editor in chief in 1999, and ran the 200-person newsroom for almost 13 years. Starting in 2012, I served as the first woman “public editor” of the New York Times — an internal media critic and reader representative — and later was the media columnist for the Washington Post. These days, I write here on Substack, as well as for the Guardian US, and teach an ethics course at Columbia Journalism School. I’ve also written two books and won a few awards, including three for defending First Amendment principles.

The purpose of ‘American Crisis’: My aim is to use this newsletter (it started as a podcast in 2023) to push for the kind of journalism we need for our democracy to function — journalism that is accurate, fair, mission-driven and public-spirited. That means that I point out the media’s flaws and failures when necessary.

What I ask of you: Last fall, I removed the paywall so that everyone could read and comment. I thought it was important in this dire moment and might be helpful. If you are able to subscribe at $50 a year or $8 a month, or upgrade your unpaid subscription, that will help to support this venture — and keep it going for all. Thank you!

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