The Dying of the US Free Press

[smofbabe]

Despite their increasingly questionable editorials and refusal to endorse Kamala Harris, I've been putting off canceling my Washington Post subscription because I felt there were still quality journalists there who were doing a good job covering the news and this administration. However, I woke up this morning to an email from a friend that merely showed his cancellation acknowledgment. I understood why when I saw the latest statement from Jeff Bezos that WaPo will be "writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others." This statement caused their opinion editor to quit in protest and finally pushed me over to cancel my subscription.

I feel for the quality journalists still at WaPo who have very few options now to move to media outlets that are not bowing down to the administration. And, of course, I fear for the country. The throttling of the free press (whether voluntarily in the case of WaPo or MSNBC, which yesterday fired their only non-white anchors, or forced by the administration, which announced yesterday that they will be the ones to determine who has access to events in the Oval Office or Roosevelt Room or travels on Air Force One rather than the White House Correspondents Association) is yet another dangerous and frightening step on the path to a full dictatorship in which the American people, who already suffer from a fog of misinformation, will have less access to reliable information about their government's actions.

For those curious about other news sources, I've got subscriptions to The Guardian (I used to share Stephen's but decided I should throw them some money of my own), The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and The New Republic (because I found I was clicking on a lot of their Twitter posts). I also subscribe to some digital stuff: I pay for The Contrarian, the effort started by former WaPo staffers Jen Rubin and Norm Ornstein (which produces a vast wave of content that I mostly don't have time to read) and Public Notice by Aaron Rupar (because I was clicking on a lot of his Twitter posts), and so far subscribe for free but might now throw some money to Pitt Griffin on Substack (https://pittgriffin.substack.com/), because I was clicking on a lot of *his* Twitter posts, and a daily round-up newsletter called "What the Fuck Just Happened Today" by a guy named Matt Kiser (https://whatthefuckjusthappenedtoday.com/subscribe/). Plus, of course, I pay to support Andy Borowitz and Jim Wright. And follow CW Daily by Connie Willis on Facebook.

Other good sources suggested by friends are Slate and Salon, and blogs from Jay Kuo and Heather Cox Richardson.

I don't have time to read all of my digital subscriptions but given what's going on in the traditional media, I want to support independent journalism while it's still allowed to be published...

Comments

[madfilkentist]

If the Washington Post stands firm on those two pillars in their full meaning, it will have its hands full. But any news source in the US is going to be subjected to increasing pressure from the administration: frivolous lawsuits, denial of access to information, and threats of prosecution.

I subscribe to Ground News, which provides access to a lot of different sources. It's not a perfect solution; it has a lot of links to low-quality sources, grants the "high factuality" label to sources I'm skeptical of, and often links to articles in languages I don't know without warning (the summary is in English).

I need to keep improving my German-language skills so I can read the news more fluently in that language. There are some very good German sources which aren't subject to US pressure, even if they have their own issues.

[smofbabe]

* I've heard of Ground News because they seem to have some sort of sponsorship deal with liberal redneck comedian Trae Crowder, who's one of my faves. I wasn't enamored enough with the concept to send them any money so interesting to read your review.

* I'm also a fan of non-US news sources and think that Reuters and the BBC are less likely to bend to the pressure from the US administration.

* As for the two pillars of WaPo, I think those phrases don't mean what most people consider them to mean.

Personal liberties - The freedom to be racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic, and to impose your Christian religious beliefs on others

Free markets - The lack of consumer, employee, or environmental protections from greedy business owners

[madfilkentist]

Those phrases have a specific meaning. You seem to think they should include only speech which you like, and views which you disapprove of should be censored. What makes you so sure you'll be the one deciding what will be censored? You know — this is purely hypothetical, of course — the president might ban a news service because it won't refer to things by the names he designates?

Free markets mean the freedom to produce, to sell, without interference in honest dealings. As Trump destroys economic freedom with his taxation-by-decree, you're determined that this power must be preserved.

This is what is wrecking America: Two authoritarian views fighting for control, and little effective opposition.

[smofbabe]

Those phrases clearly do *not* have a specific meaning or people would not be interpreting them in radically different ways.

In terms of speech, I think that this issue has been dealt with in discussions of what constitutes hate speech and people were able to come to an agreement on a definition.

As for free markets, there is no question that this administration is removing protections for workers (https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administration-has-made-36-million-workers-newly-vulnerable-to-discrimination-and-harassment/), for consumers (https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/27/business/cfpb-elon-musk-capital-one-student-debt/index.html), and for the environment (https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-invokes-authoritarian-powers-on-day-one-to-gut-environmental-protections-2025-01-20/).