Why I Unsubscribed from The Washington Post

Deciding to unsubscribe was easy to do once I started thinking about it. Keep reading, then leave a comment to discuss this topic. And check out today’s writing prompt at the bottom of this post.

This post will be challenging for me to write and share for multiple reasons. 

First, I try to be thoughtful with what I write, regardless of what I'm writing. There's a reason I didn't go into journalism. I'm not interested in being the first on scene and setting a news cycle trend and slapping grammatically incorrect eye-catching headlines on catastrophes. I am interested in thoughtful writing that helps reveal truths or push humanity forward over time. Although, come to think of it, wasn't that what journalism used to do, or strived to do at one point? Isn't that what it should be doing now? Which is devastating to consider.

Second, I always admired the legacy of The Washington Post, especially during the wake of the Watergate scandal, and hoped I could count on its reporting during seminal societal schisms and deep mistrust. But all you need to do is read some of their most recent headlines to know how much they are beginning to contort reality with a dangerous lens, albeit in a subtle way, which, quite frankly, only makes it even more alarming for those of us paying attention. 

Plainly: they seem to be normalizing the fact that a convicted felon, cheater, con man, bigot (etc.) is running for the highest office in the land and offer his underhanded strategies too much credence. There is no bias in stating that someone with a rap sheet as long as that convicted felon's rap sheet isn't fit to serve in that office. Period. Full stop. Such statements are not petty gossip based on unfounded rumors or hearsay; they are based on facts in the real world. And that person should be regarded as such: a convicted felon and proven liar, cheater, bigot, failed businessman, etc. 

Third, I, like many others living today, am continually learning about and questioning the institutions that have sustained us for so long, for better or worse— especially the media and journalism. And I could write several books, with an exorbitant amount of research, outlining why private ownership over media and journalism will doom the future prosperity of democratic civil society and humanity in the long run. (Oh, if only that last statement were hyperbole.) 

I don't dabble in conspiracy theories. I dabble in ‘common sense’, in every sense of the phrase. 

When one man alone gets to decide what can and cannot be published (especially when that man owns publishing operations and the livelihoods of so many within it) questions of free speech and a free press will and should arise. And they should not be ignored but explored. 

Furthermore, the hubris of that single man (the owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos is who I am talking about here) to say that the ‘opinions’ he sanctions or doesn't sanction in the publication he owns will sway readers one way or another when it comes to a presidential election means he failed astronomically (word choice intended) at operating that publication— if he wants to continue claiming that it was free-speech based reporting that he was encouraging to be published all along. Because if The Washington Post, under his ‘guidance’, was truly operating as a free press expressing free speech, its readers would be trusted as free thinkers and not assumed to be so easily swayed or manipulated, especially when it comes to such a pivotal choice to make, like deciding who will be our next president. So, if he thinks his readers are such easily manipulated dummies, then again, he failed at his job, and he failed them, as well as all the people who work at and with his publication. Unless of course he was never intending on operating a free press in the first place…

Essentially, I unsubscribed from The Washington Post because I felt insulted as a reader and a human being, and I wanted to start distancing myself from whatever silo its owner seems intent on creating. The consequences of such a move, for all, are still TBD…

For more information on this topic read:

• Associated Press. Washington Post report: Subscriber loss after non-endorsement reaches a quarter million 

• CNN.More than 250,000 Washington Post readers cancel subscriptions in revolt over non-endorsement

• NPR. Over 200,000 subscribers flee 'Washington Post' after Bezos blocks Harris endorsement

(I might add more to this draft in the future.)

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Today’s Writing Prompt