Anne ApplebaumI grew up with the Washington Post, wrote editorials for the Washington Post and published a column there for more than 15 years. To watch its owners destroy it, seemingly deliberately, in just an year and a half is devastating.
Huntn00
Dagnabbit, Pascaline! 💥It's all bewildering to behold.
noplasticshower@anneapplebaum I have missed it since I unsubscribed a few years ago.
Something something means of production.
Mister Shade@anneapplebaum We need to figure out how to make new, reliable news sources, ones that aren’t controlled by asshat billionaires who will gleefully smash them like toys in service of their profits and their delicate egos.
People are creating smaller, indie news outlets, but we have a ways to go before we are adequately threatening the mainstream slop.
Aaron@anneapplebaum @mister_shade02X2 Cooperatives aren't generally susceptible to billionaire buyouts, and they are incentivized to serve their members instead of the false god "Profit".
Jeremy le fou@hosford42 @anneapplebaum @mister_shade02X2 I’ve been talking with a group of journalists about how to support the development of cooperative newsrooms, and we had a panel discussion on zoom with 100 attendees. Get in touch with your email if you want me to put you in touch with their project.
@anneapplebaum @mister_shade02X2 @leftyknowitall I'm not in this field, myself, but it's very encouraging to hear there is movement in this direction! We need it in all walks of life. The way to escape end-stage capitalism is through cooperatives. We have to cut these endless takers right out of the money cycle. Billionaires' money is worth nothing if we refuse to do business with them.
Steve Foerster 🌐@anneapplebaum I'm so sorry for your loss, Anne. I'm 52, and a lifelong Northern Virginian who grew up reading whichever sections of the Post my parents were done with. I know times are tough for print media, but to see my hometown paper be needlessly eviscerated is a tragedy.
O‘Mimesis@anneapplebaum its a smooth transition to a dictatorship, we had it in Germany in 1933
@anneapplebaum @omimesis All that fantasizing we did culturally about what we would do if Nazis tried here, only to learn that many people here are downright *eager* to help them, and the vibes from those in positions of power are almost casual, "business as usual". I hope we have a really well-preserved list of the bootlickers and collaborators this time around, at least.
Grant
Nu Modular@anneapplebaum Obviously a symptomatic collapse of Capitalism. Would you 'underwrite' #EmergingEconomies in #DevelopingCountries, that are more sustainable?
Not as much of a priority as root infrastructure scientists as critical, founding mass; but important tertiary development in-and-around the metrics.
Robin Barton@anneapplebaum Washington Post and all free press has to die so that fascism can live
Tom DB 🦣@anneapplebaum Billionaires are the ruin of this world due to their egotistical and narcissistic views.
Mirishuli@anneapplebaum I’m sorry, Anne. I mourn with you.
But I wonder if this isn’t also a good thing, taking away a platform from Bezos?
Stoneface Vimes@anneapplebaum yes. It's a sad decline from the likes of Woodward and Bernstein exposing a conspiracy and bringing down a crooked president, to this isn't it.
Petra van Cronenburg
mr brown 
Steve GisselbrechtWhen he said that, we didn't realize it was a threat.
Urzl@anneapplebaum Tying any portion of your ego or identity to your employer is a toxic habit that American employers encourage at every turn to make it harder to act as free humans when necessary.
"Good" and "commercial" are mutually exclusive in the long term.
ohir@gooba42
The sentiment, the grief, the mourning are not about employer. This is about people whom we worked with and with whom we made something of importance to other people, and us. As a reader I grief the tradition and the ethos of the press, of the pride of gernerations of brave reporters and brilliant editors that got incinerated. As a human being I feel for current ones seeing their legacy put on fire.
Matt Chambers@anneapplebaum I've lived in DC since 1989 {edit: since 1984, 1989 in this house] and find it heartbreaking. But I've felt that way since late 2024, so I'm getting used to it, sadly.
Full Report Below@anneapplebaum Question is: Should I cancel my subscription? Or keep it?
Darwin WoodkaI would cancel. Tell Bezos he fucked up
lemgandiSo very sory for your loss. I grew up in Bethesda. The Post was the first daily paper I ever read.
Pat@anneapplebaum Born in 1950, revered journalism as a noble profession, I weep at how low the mighty-'WaPo, the Grey Lady, CBS news especially--have fallen. I knew them at their best.
Prickly Pam (D-PA)Same. It's literally a crying shame.
Artstories@anneapplebaum Well, Bezos is one of the Tech-Oligarchs and probably thinks that Ai-generated slop is good enough for peasants like us.
GJ Groothedde 🇪🇺@anneapplebaum It's horrible on so many levels. Especially since I suspect Bezos bought it with the purpose of killing it.
bk@anneapplebaum
Still moving fast and breaking things…
Still moving fast and breaking things…
grøtlaus fiskegrateng@anneapplebaum welcome to what fascism does to its media 😬😣
Caro 🏴@anneapplebaum Was the Post occasionally speaking truth to power? Then, sadly, I suspect you need look no further, powerful people wanted it gone and powerful people had the money to make that happen
Lor 💬While simultaneously the entire country has been destroyed in less time than that. Yeah is it definitely devastating. They (Pedophile Mafia) are gutting and prepping us for a long period of total hell.
Nik@anneapplebaum The journalistic urge to include "seemingly" in a statement like that is part of the reason we're in this situation.
Just like "appear" in this headline - https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g5490xmkeo
Iron and Ink@anneapplebaum everywhere I look I am disappointed
Dan Hugo (雨果丹)(แดน)Replacing “Washington Post” with “United States” and “owners” with “MAGA” also works.
xs4me2To watch a megalomaniac tin pot dictator destroy the USA and its geopolitical status quo deliberately in just about a year is even more disturbing and mindboggling.