The Washington Post sinks lower
February 02, 2010 11:18 am ET by Jamison Foser
Currently featured on the front page of the Washington Post's web site:
Richard Cohen's frightened plea for more torture and fewer civil liberties
Dana Milbank's inane column about the purported sexiness of the Budget Director
Ramesh Ponnuru's unsubstantiated claim that President Obama "arguably implied" that voters are "stupid."
An "On Faith" guest post by the American Life League's communications director, who describes feminists as "pro-abortion."
Howard Kurtz's daily exploration of the love lives of the powerful and famous.
And that's just what's linked on the front page -- it doesn't include sports columnist Sally Jenkins' reference to "pro-abortion" feminists, who she mocks as "the 'Dwindling Organizations of Ladies in Lockstep,' otherwise known as DOLL" while criticizing "the group-think, elitism and condescension of the 'National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time'" and "'The National Organization for Women Who Only Think Like Us.'" Jenkins concludes with a transparently silly attack on those who criticize CBS's decision to run an anti-choice Super Bowl ad while rejecting an ad for a gay dating service: "CBS owns its broadcast and can run whatever advertising it wants." Yeah ... So? That does not immunize them from criticism for the decisions they make.
I'm really starting to worry there's something in the water over at the Washington Post bulding.
More recently Katherine Weymouth has been named publisher. Katherine is best known for being the niece of Tina of the Talking Heads, and the daughter of Lally, who's mostly famous for having dated both George Will and Alexander Cockburn.
If the media is frivolous and gossipy, it's because it's run by frivolous, gossipy people. And I'm willing to do my part in this!
As newspapers like the Post attempt to function in a 24/7 - Internet - Twitter news world they naturally try to change to meet the environment.
1. They tried to move to the Right and found that their Tea-bagging readers don't read much.
2. They tried (and are continuing to try) to appeal to the Reality T.V. group (those that think the MTV Real World show is actually Real), but the MTV kids have a hard time connecting with the "elderly" dopes at the Post who write columns.
3. Their final attempt is apparently to appeal to the UFO nutburgers by printing the nonsense written by Milbank and Cohen. What they don't understand is that these UFO folks are just as likely to be diverted by even more extreme talk (Beck???) and stop reading.
Kind of like watching a dinosaur that has failed to evolve to its environment thrash around in a tar-pit. I guess the least we can do is wave goodbye when the Post sinks beneath the muck.
Something tells me she thinks her talent alone would have done it for her. Got news for you, Sally: you see all those women working word-processing gigs? They have talent too.