Watching the Washington Post Crumble

The Washington Post is flailing. The signs are there that the newspaper is struggling, directionless, out of control. The Post is becoming a less credible and responsible newspaper. I have written here that if the Post were located in any other city but the nation’s capital, it would be out of business.

The paper cannot figure out how to connect with audiences online despite an investment of millions of dollars.

The most recent sign of decline at the paper comes in the form of a video posted on the paper’s 3rd rate Web site – Post columnist and wannabe celebrity Dana Milbank and White House correspondent and blogger Chris Cillizza appeared in smoking jackets to poke fun at politicians. Milbank took a mean-spirited shot at Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton by suggesting she would drink “Mean Bitch Beer.” It wasn’t journalism, it was the lowest kind of sexist, off-color and demeaning stupid humor. Milbank needs to get over himself … he is no Jon Stewart.

Even though the paper pulled the video, it survives online at YouTube and will be yet another embarrassment to the former great newspaper for a long time:

The Post’s problems stem largely from its lack of leadership – The paper’s publisher, Katharine Weymouth, came into her job only because she was born into it … the granddaughter of the legendary newspaper woman Katharine Graham. Just a month ago, Weymouth got caught up in a another scandal of major proportions in a scheme to sell exclusive access to Post reporters for lobbyists and power brokers.

Weymouth is no journalist and neither are many of the people she has surrounded herself with. They also are not skilled in the ways of the Internet.

While much of the newspaper industry has been crumbling as the result of economic and societal trends – audiences and advertisers are streaming to online news sources – the Post’s worst enemy is itself. What we are witnessing happen is the self-destruction of the Washington Post.

Category: Featured, News Media, Personal notes