Allow me to share what I think is an amusing recollection on the occasion of this, the date the Washington ComPost has announced massive cutbacks, confirming running rumors that even billionaires such as Jeff Bezos get tired of throwing money into black holes.
To set the stage, in the early 1980s the Penguins held preseason camps in Johnstown and on one occasion the War Memorial Arena hosted a preseason game with the Washington Capitals, which I was assigned to cover, working as I was at the time for the local Woke Gazette.
I passed the evening in the press box seated next to a guy (don’t recall his name) from the Washington ComPost and we spoke of journalistic life.
Even back then, the sainted ComPost had seen its reputation sullied when DEI hire Janet Cooke won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for a story about an eight-year-old heroin addict that she just made up. Still, the ComPost was a viable economic concern at the time and it was interesting to speak with someone on the inside.
The one thing he told me that is memorable all these years later spoke volumes about ComPost think. Specifically, the guy told me the toughest job at the ComPost was not covering the White House, or politics, or the international scene, but instead was covering the NFL team, then known by the lovably politically incorrect name of Washington Redskins.
I will paraphrase what he told me: Everyone at the place thinks they know more about the Redskins and could do a better job than the person currently covering the team, no matter who that might be.
This sort of delusional smugness helps explain why this publication has declined to the point of being downsized in an attempt to try to stop the money drain.
Returning to the Cooke tale, after the fact it was widely reported that many at the paper had questioned her story, but were branded as jealous types. And among the most sainted names of ComPost lore, Bob Woodward, is the assistant managing editor who submitted the story for the Pulitzer prize in feature writing. It should have been placed in the fiction category.
Did Woodward, he of Watergate fame, feel bad about it all? Apparently not.
Consider this from his statement on the whole Cooke mess: “It would be absurd for me or any other editor to review the authenticity or accuracy of stories that are nominated for prizes.”
Nothing has changed through the years, with the ComPost and New York Times sharing a 2018 Pulitzer for the made-up Russiagate frenzy.
Leftist “journalists” have decided truth should not be allowed to diminish narrative. They are content to operate as well-paid propagandists, free to do so as long as someone else is picking up the tab.
For, you see, there is a declining market for such pablum, if there is a price to be paid for it. Bezos held his nose and paid the freight for a time. Now, even he tires.
And so, the smug ComPost, might want to consider changing the self-righteous masthead slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness” to something more appropriate, like “Propaganda Dies When it Meets Economic Reality.”
Sam Ross Jr's site 