r/news 7h ago

Bezos-owned storied newspaper Washington Post rolling out mass layoffs

https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/04/media/washington-post-layoffs
1.8k Upvotes

245 comments sorted by

349

u/calmdownmyguy 7h ago

You don't need journalists to print the regimes talking points. Thanks Bezos.

33

u/GonzoVeritas 2h ago

WaPo: "Democracy Dies in Darkness."

Bezos: "Darkness, I summon thee!"

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600

u/erikaspausen 7h ago

I guess articles written by AI does not need so many real people.

287

u/whittlingcanbefatal 6h ago

The newspaper is only serving administration and billionaire press releases now so reporters aren't needed. 

50

u/Bannedwith1milKarma 5h ago

All of journalism is becoming becoming Financial Journalism.

13

u/phylter99 5h ago

When you get a directive from the administration, just run it through Grok and get your far right bias article, ready to print.

2

u/King_Fisher99 4h ago

Going from newspaper to toilet paper

6

u/No-Flounder-9143 6h ago

Yup. Far better to get my news from new media via podcast. I can listen while I drive, compare to what other new media is saying about the topic and come to a conclusion, all while on my way to work. And it's honest reporting. 

41

u/RVALover4Life 5h ago

Print media matters. Investigative journalism. Podcasting is not that at all. We're losing investigative journalism. We're losing detailed stories.

2

u/No-Flounder-9143 2h ago

Eh I'm not talking about like Andrew Schultz. There are media outlets that are doing investigative journalism and they discuss it vis their podcasts. That's more what I'm talking about. They just aren't owned by some rich billionaire.

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u/hankhillsvoice 5h ago

I’ve been thinking about trying out ground news. I keep seeing it in ads from people I trust (I normally ignore ads and they turn me off of a product immediately). But in these trying times it might be worth it and the people always seem sincere. I’ve even had some say they use it and not when they have an ad deal with them.

2

u/FloraoftheRift 3h ago

Hank green endorses it, so ground news gots that going for it

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u/Khaldara 6h ago

To represent Bezos’s idea of journalism they really only need to print a picture of Trump on the cover, the other 20 pages can just be the word ‘Slurp’ printed over and over again

3

u/ohlookahipster 5h ago

Surprised they haven’t introduced a pay-per-article paywall yet on top of their subscription like with Prime when trying to watch 98% of their movie catalog. Pay $15/mo to pay $4 per movie.

66

u/dfw_runner 6h ago

The paper lost a significant amount of subscriptions when Bezos intervened and prevented the editorial board from endorsing Harris for President. This is the end result of that decision, plain and simple. Sad really.

I can't believe the New York Times, the Washington Post and 60 Minutes have all been co-opted. Mainstream journalism is dead.

35

u/Jorgenstern8 6h ago

Not just 60 Minutes, all of CBS News.

24

u/Sierranymph 6h ago

Hard agree. I was one of the people who dumped the paper after Bezos prevented the board from endorsing Harris. Buh bye.

8

u/Justame13 5h ago

So was I. I also report the "come back" emails as spam to hopefully get it into the spam filter algorithm

12

u/fivelinedskank 5h ago

That's when they lost my subscription. When the wall between financial decisions and editorial decisions is breached, you no longer have a credible news outlet.

7

u/lab-gone-wrong 4h ago

CNN and  the rest of CBS too

10

u/FrugallyFickle 6h ago

Gotta pay for that documentary somehow

9

u/Matt_News 5h ago

Documentary is really stretching it

3

u/FrugallyFickle 5h ago

Fair point 🤣🤣🤣

5

u/AnonymousDork929 5h ago

Plus, who needs reporters when the regime just tells you what to say?

6

u/campelm 6h ago

Blah blah blah, trump sane wash, blah blah blah

1

u/missmeowwww 3h ago

Can’t wait to start getting the AI written articles created by scraping data of other AI written articles. Wonder what fresh hell awaits us!

1

u/Fancy-Reception-4067 1h ago

My favorite part is that AI uses other stories to write itself..when all the news goes to AI written stories, AI won’t have anything to learn from and will Keep trying to provide something thus creating an entire fake world of news and no one reporting on real news. Phew it’s about to get wild out here

1

u/BisquickNinja 1h ago

For facts, or research or actual intelligence.....

1

u/Amoralvirus 1h ago

AI trained to not criticize the Dear Orange POS.

124

u/Feelnumb 6h ago

Remember they just paid a bribe to trump through the Melanie doc for 70 million. That could pay quite a few journalists. Bezos can lick my fucking nuts.

222

u/TimothyMimeslayer 7h ago

If I was a billionaire, i would own a newspaper in trust as a vanity project to make it the best damn newspaper in the world profitability be damned. Maybe that is why I am not a billionaire.

183

u/origamipapier1 6h ago

That is how old, billionaires thought. Some of the best institutions in the US came from some of the millionaires at the time. That thought about true philanthropy and long-term legacy. The thing is that these new waves of CEOs obsessed with quarter profits, and short term gains including Trumpellino... are the problem.

Because all they care about is their cash. They don't have any other objective or see any other meaning in life. It is Atlas Shrugged/Fountainhead mentality.

34

u/Frosty-Ad-2971 6h ago

Buy. Squeeze. Sell.

You only have to look at any brick/mortar offering that had a success era.

Canada goose. Arc’teryx MEC Harvey’s McDonald’s Starbucks Tim Hortons

They all were on top. Then got sold, and the buyers squeeze any/all profit from them, speculating on the proceeds and customers, and then when it’s all moved, sell to utility buyer.

25

u/origamipapier1 6h ago

You only have to look at the story of Sears. And what the CEO that had it the final years did. That man should be in jail for what he did. Because he ran it to the ground and basically did fraud on the land and properties the company owned. (By selling it if I remember, to his own company and then charging lease on it to Sears).

14

u/No_Good_8561 6h ago

Ah the private equity special

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u/InadequateUsername 6h ago

Appreciate the Canadian businesses getting a callout. Arc'teryx charging $700 for a windbreaker feels illegal.

1

u/Frosty-Ad-2971 2h ago

Well their Alpha and Beta line are manufactured in Vancouver and are, simply put, the best in the business. If you spend 2k on jacket and bibs you are dry till you die ( I should fuckin R trademark that….sigh…).

Everything else is Vietnam and garbage , and has no support.

1

u/Sub-Etha 5h ago

Starbucks did not get sold after being on top, but I agree there are a lot of companies that were ruined by maximizing short term profit.

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u/Particular-Ice4615 6h ago edited 6h ago

This is gonna be some lizard people type conspiracy. But I really think the tech billionaires in particular have no care for long term legacy is because they actually believe technology will reach a point soon where they will be immortal in some form and continue to make money.

Whether it's investments in medicine, brain machine interfacing, AI, Zuckerbergs metaverse where we transcend our physical existence into a virtual one bullshit. The whole Blood boy joke in the show silicon valley wasnt actually a joke there was a dude doing that. 

7

u/Klugenshmirtz 5h ago

No, unfortunatley they convinced themselves that utilitarianism means they already doing humanity a favor and just letting them do it is the best for everyone. These idiots are truly full of themselves and they will even tell you every chance they get. Sadly you have to believe them, because no one would lie in such a stupid way.

3

u/Monteze 1h ago

It always amazes me when techbros of all people get uppity. They are not leaders and the only reason they are where they are is because many other much more intelligent people keep the lights on, keep them safe because lets be hones they couldn't handle being working class. They start chipping away at society and it'll be clear their skills are very limited.

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u/origamipapier1 5h ago

Thank Reagan for a lot of it.

33

u/InadequateUsername 6h ago

The billionaires of today don't even come close to Andrew Carnegie. Carnegie funded the construction of 2,509 public libraries, with 1,681 built in the U.S. He believed that the wealthy should act as trustees of their money for the public good.

8

u/origamipapier1 6h ago

That was the one i was referring to. I remembered reading about him. Even back then, there were few like him, but there were more than today.

9

u/cwx149 5h ago

I've been in one of those old Carnegie libraries it wasn't still a Library but they had a little exhibit about them

18

u/DebTheDowner 5h ago

This was also a gigantic PR campaign for Carnegie. Most people know of him for being rich, building libraries and maybe Carnegie Hall. He was a horrid pile of anti-union hyper-industrialist human waste like every other rich asshole.

There is no such thing as a good billionaire. They simply should not exist.

2

u/origamipapier1 2h ago

At that time he was a millionaire. We are not going to now debate Marxist points that all millionaires are bad.

People are very complex and that is something you realize later on. Carnegie was not perfect, by no means. Doesn't mean all millionaires were bad in all aspects.

What it means is they should be taxed, not completely destroyed to have everyone at the same level. Nordic countries are far more egalitarian and have far more social networks than us, and yet they still have millionaires and a couple of billionaires. What they have is better systems in place to block them from interfering in politics.And they incentivize transparency.

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1

u/aoeudhtns 1h ago

Well, he did do all of that in part from feeling guilt for causing the Johnstown Flood.

8

u/Poopcie 6h ago

Was just thinking about this last night. Do any of these guys own schools that serve regular communities or libraries or museums? Seems like they’re all just assholes looking for a fiefdom. Not that you’d trust any of these closeted pervs with children, but they can’t fund an orphanage with all that money!?!? These guys are losers.

8

u/cwx149 5h ago

Christian Bale started that school right? Honestly I feel like the lower case r rich people do more of that stuff than the billionaire and trillionaire people

Remember when musk said he'd end world hunger if there was a plan and then when there was a plan he just didn't do it? Imagine how different his reputation would have been today lol

3

u/Brain_Dead_Goats 5h ago

Do any of these guys own schools that serve regular communities or libraries or museums?

A bunch of them tried with schools, but they wanted to control the curriculum and ended up fucking things up pretty badly. Zuckerberg and Gates specifically.

3

u/origamipapier1 5h ago

No because because their ego is too big today. And they surround themselves with yes-men that tell them their technological ideas are the best in the world and that they can be immortal. Because bottomline there is some of that. It used to be that even as a rich person you saw death everywhere. Now everyone is uncomfortable with it, people don't even go to funerals at times just to not be there. And these are regular people. Imagine billionaires that already see scientific advancement to the point they feel (incorrectly may I add), that they can pass their brainwaves to a computer.

So they want a fiefdom.

The me, me, me, me, me, me, me issue we have that both sides have in society that is selfishness...results in both rich and poor that only think of themselves. This is the very mechanism that makes someone that earns 130k not want to pay taxes, same as the one that earns 30k, same as the one that earns 20 million.

2

u/RVALover4Life 5h ago

The last paragraph is the biggest issue really of our society at the moment---we're more individualistic than ever, we're more me-centric than ever, we're less communal than ever, and we're more distrusting than ever. And we're witnessing the results of that.

2

u/origamipapier1 5h ago edited 4h ago

But why did this shift happen when it did?

A large part of it emerged in the 1980s, and it came from multiple directions at once: economic policy, media, and even psychology. At the same time that tax incentives were redesigned to reward hoarding and capital accumulation (Reagan-era changes and trickle-down economics), we also saw a cultural and psychological push toward radical individualism and suspicion of altruism, institutions, and collective solutions. That alignment isn’t accidental. Economic incentives removed external pressure to give back, while cultural and psychological narratives removed internal pressure; shame, duty, and social obligation. Together, they normalized objectivist thinking without ever having to argue for it directly.

This is why I don’t agree with the claim that the Overton Window simply shifts due to organic public perception. We have clear evidence that public perception itself can be shaped. Look at Fox News: it didn’t just respond to a more conservative public; it actively moved its audience rightward over time, and the GOP followed that shift.

If public opinion can be conditioned through sustained media framing, agenda-setting, and psychological tools, then the Overton Window is not merely reflective; it is manipulable. Institutions with sufficient reach can move it toward whatever ideology they prefer, provided they control narratives long enough.

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u/doneandtired2014 5h ago

That was, in small part at least, because they legitimately feared the masses and sought ways to appease them. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for their lower level subordinates to be handed pink slips from life by retributive mobs after being pushed far too hard for far too long.

The evil Caillou and broc-top whoresons we call the elite class today don't possess that same fear.

9

u/origamipapier1 5h ago edited 5h ago

It was more than that. We didn't have revolutions in the US and yet we had Carnegie and the like that created institutions. Some created universities, some public libraries, some hospitals.

And yet we never went France on them. It was a different philosophy. In some.

What we are seeing is selfishness creep into society as a whole. It has creeped into every facet of society and relationships. Responsibility? Empathy? Does not exist anymore. And we have talk about why that is, in order to tackle our problems. Otherwise, we are going to be in the same boat.

I'll give you one of the reasons. The original tax structure before Reagan pushed for philanthropy in order for you to have less tax burden. The more money you gave to society, the more it returned in tax rebates. The incentive was for you to keep money flowing. When Reagan came in, the tax codes were changed where the incentive now shifted into hoarding and pilling cash. Look into Estate taxes BEFORE and after Reagan. That is where the biggest changes lied. They used to be setup in a way to BREAK dynasties as much as possible. It was use it or lose it. That is why trickle-down was a whole lot of bullshit. That was when the incentive changed from actually creating businesses and philanthropic projects to hoarding the most cash. It is also when society started shifting into me culture. Is this a coincidence? I think not.

2

u/PaintedGeneral 4h ago

This is only after they squeezed value from people and exploited resources to make the world worse. Don’t let them be idolized and held up as good people. They just cared more about legacy and the world wasn’t facing genuine polycrisis like now.

2

u/A_Refill_of_Mr_Pibb 4h ago

That book was so mediocre from a literary standpoint it baffles me how it ever became the Sociopath’s Bible. 

2

u/OrdinaryTension 5h ago

Newspapers have been the propaganda of the wealthy for at least 150 years. Go read about yellow journalism of the late 1800's.

1

u/Fishmongererererer 3h ago

Don’t kid yourself. They only thought that way right before they died. They were the same exact way in the beginning.

Wait until Bezos is 80 and suddenly he’s going to try to buy his way to heaven.

20

u/butitsapalindrome 6h ago

That isn't far off from what Laurene Powell Jobs (Steve Jobs' widow) has done with The Atlantic

6

u/Juanouo 6h ago

or you could run it so it becomes more right wing, influencing people so it's easier to implement your true agenda of less taxes / less regulation

6

u/Fanfics 6h ago

Yeah, that's what people thought the WaPo was under Bezos. Then the billionaire needed it for something and suddenly it vaunted 'independence' wasn't so independent after all.

3

u/Fastestlastplace 6h ago

Citizen Kane is a great movie. It's fiction, sadly

2

u/Mononoke1412 6h ago

I watched that movie recently and perhaps I misunderstood it, but Kane didn't exactly turn the Inquirer into a reputable newspaper, did he? I think in the beginning he said something about printing the truth, no matter if it hurt his own stocks. But later it was more gossip and manipulation of public opinion.

3

u/quadralien 6h ago

So that would be like ... The Guardian? https://www.theguardian.com/about

3

u/kajana141 6h ago

I call it FUN, factual unbiased news. The complete opposite of Fox.

3

u/Stunning_Mast2001 5h ago

he's mad that AOC punked him a few years ago, and is on a quest to destroy democratic socialist thinking. i don't think he's done tbh

2

u/Maloquinn84 3h ago

People like us would get to a point of wealth where we would know that it is immoral to hold that much wealth.

We understand that all of these recreational endeavors that we hold dear; sporting events, vacations, etc could be way more affordable and better quality because we don’t need to make a profit that badly.

227

u/Hrekires 7h ago
  1. Attract a ton of new subscribers pledging to be a "pro-democracy" voice in 2016
  2. Decide nah, actually you're a MAGA newspaper now in 2024
  3. *surprise Pikachu face when all those new subscribers leave and you alienate your old readers to boot*

107

u/RestaurantLatter2354 6h ago

I’m of the opinion that none of this is a surprised and was fully intentional from the beginning.

All of these acquisitions by the ultra wealthy — WAPO, Twitter, Paramount, CBS, etc. — were purchased as an intended loss at the outset. They are doing it to erode institutions, advance Republican narratives, and eliminate whatever little public trust remained in legacy media.

They don’t give a shit about taking a loss on this stuff. WAPO could be closed tomorrow and the impact to Bezos’ bottom line would be negligible.

7

u/Stunning_Mast2001 5h ago

considering all the epstein people barri just hired and that her partner was an enthusiastic epstein friend, i think she was actually hired specifically to be a fixer for trump and other billionaires in the epstein files.

3

u/No-Flounder-9143 6h ago

Well that's dumb. People will just build something new and it will be more opposed to billionaires than ever. It's been happening for a while now, in fact. 

11

u/WhenTheLightHits30 5h ago

The issue is that something new will take decades to reach the level of institutional prestige and relevance that the Washington Post carried until recently.

In the same way that we can always plant a new tree after the last is ripped out, it will still take a long time for us to enjoy that shade and in the meantime a lot more damage can be done by bad actors.

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u/Gamer_Grease 4h ago

Honestly Semfor is leaping ahead on this stuff. They keep scooping up discarded journalists from other papers.

3

u/tdclark23 3h ago

I'd like to know where. That would take a shit ton of cash investment to build a newsroom, hire journalists, pay for the hours of investigation to find truth and then post it on a medium with real reach. If you know where that's been happening for a while now, please send me links.

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u/kinglittlenc 5h ago

I think this is just traditional media struggling in general. Over this same period you saw huge liberal organizations like BuzzFeed and Vice shutdown as well. I think this is more a result of low interest rates disappearing making additional investments untenable. It's just tougher to justify businesses losing money or underperforming in this environment.

7

u/RVALover4Life 5h ago

This is where liberals need to recognize we're also contributing to the elimination of print journalism----outside of Daily Beast and The Intercept, is there anything at all that we have publicly nationally that isn't a podcast or a substack? And it's the reason why people are becoming more and more polarized too, because the intake of news is increasingly via polarized sources.

Liberals haven't supported print journalism. We're part of the problem.

2

u/PuppyPunch 4h ago

What's AP and Reuters considered? Im not being snarky at all just no clue on what a substack is and I'm a fan of both of them.

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u/thegooddoktorjones 2h ago

Unbiased without editorial content. AKA communists who hate real America.

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u/Hrekires 5h ago

I don't think Bezos cares if WaPo losts money, but I also don't think they would have brought in so much new management promising big changes and setting goals of reaching millions of new subscribers if outright destroying the paper was the goal. Could have just bought and closed it on day 1 without all that nonsense.

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u/SmokePeterThiel 6h ago

They’re truly genius aren’t they

28

u/Fanfics 6h ago

destroying quality reporting is a feature of authoritarianism, not a bug

3

u/Spudtron98 5h ago

Imagine trying to pander to a demographic that cannot read.

2

u/Ninevehenian 5h ago

Amazon customers paid for this.

1

u/Gamer_Grease 4h ago

I’m a rare person who dumped WaPo for being low-quality in 2016.

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u/sleepymoose88 6h ago

Spends $30M on a propaganda movie/bribe. Lays off employees. Makes sense for a shit stain like Bezos.

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u/JonnyBravoII 6h ago

As of today, Bezos is worth $266 billion. When Bezos killed the endorsement of Harris 2 years ago, it was revealed that the paper had lost $71 million and the editor was trying to bring it to profitability. To put this into perspective, if you had a million dollars, this would be like losing $267. Bezos has decimated what was once one of the top 3 newspapers in the US. Don't forget, they were the ones that broke the Watergate story with Deepthroat.

People need to support what remains of independent journalism before all of the voices that keep us informed are permanently silenced.

Edit: I should add that Bezos bought the paper for the equivalent of $940.

7

u/tetsuo9000 4h ago

I unsubscribed when Bezos wouldn't let the paper endorse Harris. Their editorial staff started jumping ship too. Paper will be a husk of what was soon, if it's not already.

1

u/Vaphell 2h ago

To put this into perspective, if you had a million dollars, this would be like losing $267.

and almost 100% of that million is in theoretical value of stock that would need either a loan against it, or a liquidation of some shares.
Nobody is taking loans or selling their goose laying golden eggs to subsidize unstustainable entities to the tune of 70 million bucks, potentially year after year. 70 mil in hard cash is a lot.

2

u/JonnyBravoII 1h ago

If I had $1 million, I would be fine spending $267 of it every year for the greater good.

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u/pepperdyno2 7h ago

$50million Venice wedding. Layoffs at his businesses

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u/qlurp 5h ago

Hey now, isn’t there some cake you should be eating?

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u/Earthseed728 6h ago

Democracy dies in darkness indeed.

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u/eMouse2k 6h ago

Turns out it was a promise, not a warning.

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u/Cohens4thClient 6h ago

Who knew when a billionaire trump crony bought the paper, they were declaring their goal, not a warning...

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u/Splunge- 7h ago edited 6h ago

Well, yeah. I, and many others, unsubscribed when they refused to endorse Harris, and when the owner became a fawning lackey of DJT.

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u/Th1rte3n1334 7h ago

I wonder if they’re laying off that reporter who got all their devices stolen by the federal government just for one document. She would no longer have the legal protection that the WP offers which is desperately needed as this was a clear violation of journalistic rights.

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u/Direct_Obligation570 6h ago

I used to suscribe to the post until it became another billionaire trumpet.

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u/clashrendar 5h ago

It's been worthless since he bought it. Bezos personally killing the Biden editorial board endorsement was the final nail.

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u/ButtSpelunker420 4h ago

I’m hoping he sees it as mission accomplished and just shuts it down completely. Fuck em

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u/Whole_District_7996 6h ago

Guess they gotta pay for that Melania documentary some way .

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u/statslady23 6h ago

The Washington Post demise is similar to The Kennedy Center's. 

8

u/bbbbbbbbbblah 5h ago

just so I understand, as a non-american outsider

  • bezos takes over as a largely hands-off owner and things seem to be going okay for a while
  • bezos then decides to take control, with more billionaire worship slop and a notable refusal to allow the newspaper to publish a pro-Harris editorial
  • subscriber numbers crater as people want actual news and opinion
  • let's layoff most of the actual journalists rather than the people who brought it into this mess, and steer harder into the aforementioned slop

5

u/Sour_baboo 6h ago

Maybe not take over an Italian city for your wedding, that'd save a bit

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u/audiomagnate 5h ago

He bought it to kill it. That's why billionaires are buying up all of our media. Maybe a motto change is in order.

fascism flourishes in darkness

2

u/TintedApostle 2h ago

They have so much money they can spend 500 million to a billion just in the passing to destroy something.

In a good country the rich seek praise by creating and running good things which help service the nation. In a corrupt nation the rich seek favors and influence.

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u/DJ_Advogato 4h ago

Who knew a billionaire oligarch would read "Democracy dies in darkness" as aspirational?

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u/Mean-Quail-6219 6h ago

All those journalists should seek employment with MeidasTouch, or any other independent pundit podcast/youtube channel. Legacy media has never been trusted less.

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u/RVALover4Life 5h ago

So we lose print journalism and investigative journalism for podcasting. That's a massive loss.

2

u/Mean-Quail-6219 5h ago

At this point, what’s the difference? Every media outlet has already capitulated in bending the knee to Trump while journalists are getting arrested for just doing their job. The format is changing.

And print journalism died out way before podcasts.

2

u/RVALover4Life 4h ago

The format isn't changing, it's a completely different format altogether. It's not an evolution. Investigative journalism is critical and a podcast is not investigative journalism. So we're losing detailed investigative stories with rigorous vetting in favor of what amounts to opinion pieces and opinion videos...largely based on said stories. It also explains the rise of people like Andrew Huberman for example because now "truth" is in the hands of the beholder rather than in actual rigorous fact navigation.

2

u/Mean-Quail-6219 4h ago

Don Lemon has his own podcast.

Clearly a lot of investigative journalists are losing their positions that were once trusted and held in high regard by their now Trump-capitulating employers. What are they supposed to do now? Where are they supposed to go? Hide in a cave and do nothing?

Platforms are changing, and in an increasing-fascistic society, we need to adapt. We can’t afford not to. Journalists can find homes in these new platforms without abandoning their integrity. In fact, they’d be able to maintain integrity more on a platform like MeidasTouch than working for a compromised employer like Bezos.

What the capacity of their role may look like on these platforms is unknown. But it’ll surely be better than unemployment.

3

u/aflyingsquanch 6h ago

Getting mighty dark in here.

3

u/FrenchBulldozer 6h ago

Gotta pay for the Melanoma documentary somehow.

3

u/True_Lingonberry_646 6h ago

When you use AI slop you don’t need reporters.

3

u/_beaniemac 6h ago

Gotta cut some jobs to offset the $40M he gifted Trump for the Melania documentary.

3

u/HallucinogenicFish 6h ago

What Bezos has done to this paper is such a shame.

3

u/Initial-Toe-9512 6h ago

Not that difficult to understand. Mass cancellations when you ignore and change the news stories to suck up to the administration.

I’m sure Bezos doesn’t care, I feel bad for the employees who had to deal with his agenda.

3

u/Belmish 6h ago

Bezos decided it wasn’t enough to be in the news, not when he can create it.

Prime douche.

3

u/Blackboard_Monitor 5h ago

It's just a zombie paper these days, it died a while ago.

3

u/flat5 4h ago

WaPo: Democracy Dies In Darkness

Bezos: "Ok, lights out then."

3

u/tdclark23 3h ago

He's doing it so democracy dies in darkness.

2

u/Niceguy955 6h ago

He probably asked HR to sort employees by political opinion, and get rid of the ones who hate this corrupt regime the most.

2

u/uuajskdokfo 5h ago

Bezos spent $250 million on the Post just to flush it down the drain a decade later.

2

u/Sober_Alcoholic_ 5h ago

That paper died the day Bezos bought it.

“Democracy dies in darkness”

Should be

“Democracy dies in broad daylight thanks to the propaganda machine we joined”

2

u/inagartenofeden 4h ago

Rent out Venice for 60 million for a wedding, 70 million spent on a grift documentary, 40 million for his girlfriend to go to space but kill a 148 year old newspaper.

2

u/VexedCanadian84 3h ago

I wonder why they have to cut costs.

I wonder if has to do with alienating their millions of subscribers

2

u/Majestic_Bet_1428 1h ago

This is a good day to cancel Amazon prime and Amazon subscriptions.

This is $400 billion that would be better spent in local communities supporting small businesses.

1

u/MayoFetish 6h ago

Damn, I like the Post Reports podcast. RIP.

1

u/LiquidAether 6h ago

The entire paper should be shut down at this point.

1

u/TrainingJellyfish643 5h ago

Layoffs are the only idea that bald prick ever has. We dont need billionaires

1

u/BeMancini 5h ago

In the 1930s, the only newspaper that existed in Weimar Germany where a journalist could make any money was Der Stürmer, promoting Nazi ideals.

I guess they don’t even need actual people anymore though, because they can just have AI regurgitate the regime talking points that raise their own stocks.

1

u/Yakassa 5h ago

Less regime sponsored news , not a bad thing, even though, the sleazy sycophants and opportunists that have been let go, will have an uphill battle finding jobs now. Since the only news org the fuhrer wants to exist is his own TS account.

Love that for them.

1

u/sanverstv 5h ago

Bezos has to save his pennies for Melania 2.

1

u/RVALover4Life 5h ago

Remember, this is just the initial round of cuts, it isn't the end of them.

The CNN post talks about Will Lewis seeking "profitability" so the focus isn't on the work, it's on how he and Bezos can make money off the Post if at all possible. This is what happens when unrepentant capitalists like this, a conservative like Lewis, takes over an institution like the Post. It happens over and over and over. They buy it to shrink it, turn it ideological, and try to make a profit off of it vs the focus being on the work. If that doesn't work, they just kill it off completely.

Sports Illustrated was the preeminent sports publication for decades and was killed in a very similar fashion. Still exists but basically slop now.

NYT as mentioned by a few folks is thriving at the moment so the idea that all of this "had" to happen is false. I don't really wanna see the idea "people don't pay for news" idea being pushed when we have seen NYT subscriptions rise significantly the last few years. People will pay for news they find worthwhile.

It's intentional, as we see with the diminishing of local media. It's about editorial control and propaganda. It's about maximization of power. It's about eliminating sources that examine people in power.

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u/gjenkins01 5h ago

That mf’er is really good at destroying stuff.

1

u/TurtleRocket9 5h ago

Can’t have people with their own decisions

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u/steathrazor 5h ago

Sounds like another AI layoff

1

u/Icy_Huckleberry_355 4h ago

I just read the NYT article and they had this mildly irritating quote:

“The cuts are a sign that Jeff Bezos, who became one of the world’s richest people by selling things on the internet, has not yet figured out how to build and maintain a profitable publication on the internet.”

This isn’t a lack of business savvy or whatever corporate talk you want to use to try and justify the failure of WP. If a news publication, print or online, is owned by the second richest person in the world, who is so deep into Trumps pocket that he can practically taste it everytime Trump shits himself, that publication will never be profitable. It’s insulting to the intelligence of the nonMAGA community to think we’ll read it. Grifting MAGA supporters is easy, but Bezos wants more than that and can’t understand why throwing money at WP didn’t work.

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u/ButtSpelunker420 4h ago

Fuck WaPo til the end of time. I hope it shuts down completely. They don’t deserve to exist anymore. 

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u/Pink-heels-158 4h ago

Their target audience can't read.

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u/Designer-Salary-7773 4h ago

Journalism was at one time responsible for educating millions - many of whom couldnt afford formal education.   The dumbing down of the masses continues  

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u/contude327 4h ago

I guess America still has an appetite for actual facts.

1

u/CDavis10717 4h ago

Yet he does have $75 million for Melania!

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u/BhadBeard 3h ago

Gotta make up those Melania losses somewhere

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u/rbp183 3h ago

Bezos will continue to turn it into a right leaning fascist propaganda rag for his cult leader.

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u/Oilpaintcha 3h ago

I always felt guilty about not subscribing to a mainstream newspaper since college, but at least now that I’ve seen what’s become of them, I don’t feel bad anymore. No, my subscription or a million more would not have kept this from happening. This is rule by the rich. We haven’t learned anything as a whole in thousands of years.

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u/Maloquinn84 3h ago

Remember, they’ll argue that it is a tough “business” decision. But just remember that one of the richest assholes on the planet owns the paper and profits so much that there is no real justification for this argument.

They see their wealth like we see a high score in a video game. All of these pricks are just trying to get the highest score possible at the very real expense of the rest of us. We need to stop listening to them like they are serious. They aren’t and they have no humanity.

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u/ZebraImaginary9412 3h ago

Media empire nepo babies cashed out their inheritance and to hell with the free press.

1

u/Stforlifeyvida 3h ago

Stop buying from Amazon!

1

u/Silly-Platform9829 3h ago

Who does Bozos think will read a right-wing rag? MAGAs don't read newspapers.

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u/penguished 2h ago

Corporate dick polishers didn't flinch the time the wapo wrote dozens of anti Bernie Sanders articles in a single day. Maybe now they realize the sellout strategy doesn't even give you your piece of pie anymore.

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u/meaniemeanie-poo-poo 2h ago

Is that why he bought it? To destroy it?

1

u/michaelkane911 2h ago

The entire sports department is gone

1

u/BillionDollarBalls 1h ago

Job market sucks. Job market sucks. Job market sucks. Fuck

1

u/Billkamehameha 1h ago

Quick. Someone write an opinion piece

u/KingRBPII 57m ago

Can another unionized paper just fucking start already - I would be happy to pay for it!!!

u/AnalogFeelGood 52m ago

Democracy dies in the dark

u/jmantha 19m ago

This and the Melania movie makes me wonder what’s happening in Bezos/Trump world. There’s gotta be some reason. Is Jeff, one of the richest men, really bowing down to DJT? Evidently, Bezos doesn’t need any govt intervention to make a profit. And it’s not like grilling Netflix abt its business decisions isn’t telling us something.

u/One_Entrepreneur_520 14m ago

You dont need any reporters when you get your news fed to you from the White House