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#thewashingtonpost — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #thewashingtonpost, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Ranking the Republican 2028 contenders

    President Trump dominates the political landscape, holding off lame-duck status for now. But some signs are emerging that…
    #UnitedStates #US #USA #Cruz #marcorubio #Rubio #secretaryofstate #state #TheWashingtonPost #trump #TrumpJr #TrumpOrganizationInc. #vance
    europesays.com/3236797/

  2. ‘It will still take years’: Ted Cruz acknowledges that Trump’s Venezuela oil deal won’t lead to immediate gas savings

    Ted Cruz has a message for Americans hoping for cheaper gas following President Donald Trump’s deal with Venezuela:…
    #Conflict #Conflicts #War #American #Americans #CharlieNeibergall #Cruz #Gallup #tedcruz #TheWashingtonPost #U.S. #Venezuela
    europesays.com/3235269/

  3. A National Newspaper Falls — and Democracy Feels It

    Why the Dismantling of The Washington Post Is a National Warning

    By DrWeb, assisted by AI. All content, images edited and approved. Some images are also public domain, as noted in the captions.

    AI image, created by Sora. Washington post Editorial 1 by Michael McCulley is marked CC0 1.0 Universal. To view a copy of this mark, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

    On February 4, 2026, the American people lost a vital organ of their democracy. It didn’t happen in a courtroom or through a legislative act; it happened on a Zoom call.

    When Executive Editor Matt Murray and CEO Will Lewis announced the termination of over 300 journalists—one-third of a newsroom that once stood as the world’s watchdog—they used the bloodless language of corporate “restructuring.” They spoke of search engine algorithms, the rise of Generative AI, and the “disappointing realities” of the media market. But we must see through the fog. This was not a business adjustment; it was a surrender.

    The Washington Post has, for over 150 years, been a “living laboratory” of modern journalism. It was the place where the impossible stories were told, where “Darkness” was fought with a relentless, expensive, and often dangerous pursuit of the truth. By gutting the foreign desks and local Metro coverage, leadership has essentially declared that the world—and the citizens of the nation’s capital—no longer deserve to be seen.

    II. A Legacy Forged in Fire: Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

    To understand the depth of this betrayal, one must remember what the Washington Post used to be. In 1971, the paper faced a choice that would define the First Amendment for a generation. When the Nixon administration secured an injunction against the New York Times to stop the publication of the Pentagon Papers, it was Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee who stepped into the breach.

    They knew that publishing those top-secret documents—which proved the government had systematically lied about the Vietnam War—could lead to criminal charges or the financial ruin of the paper. They did it anyway. They understood that the press’s duty is to the governed, not the governors. That Post saved this country by exposing the “GIGO (Garbage in, Garbage out” of the military-industrial complex. It proved that a newsroom, armed with the truth and the courage to print it, could stop a war machine. Today, that same newsroom is being hollowed out by a billionaire who appears more concerned with federal contracts than with the legacy of Graham.

    III. The Specter of Anticipatory Obedience

    The layoffs of 2026 are the completion of a bow toward power that began in October 2024. When Jeff Bezos spiked the Post’s endorsement of Kamala Harris, he was signaling a pivot toward compliance.

    As his other companies —Amazon and Blue Origin— depend on massive federal contracts, the Post’s editorial independence has become a “rounding error” on a billionaire’s balance sheet. We are seeing a return to the dark days of “anticipatory obedience,” where the press silences itself to avoid the wrath of a vengeful administration. When the reporter covering Amazon itself is among the first to be fired, the watchdog is no longer guarding the public; it is guarding the owner.

    IV. The Human Cost: Fired in a War Zone

    The cruelty of these layoffs is exemplified by the case of Lizzie Johnson. A dedicated Ukraine correspondent, Johnson was notified of her layoff while on the ground in a war zone—working without heat or power in sub-zero temperatures to bring the reality of the Russian invasion to American doorsteps. To fire a journalist while they are literally under fire is the ultimate indictment of modern corporate “news.” By erasing the entire Middle East roster, the Post is blinding the American public to global realities at a moment when awareness is a matter of national survival.

    V. What Can We Do?

    Washington post Editorial 1 by Michael McCulley is marked CC0 1.0 Universal. To view a copy of this mark, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

    My small site, a small but growing blog, remains (for now) a small, independent voice, but we are not silent, nor will we be. The death of the Post as we knew it means the burden of truth-seeking falls back onto We the People, and other media, and the resources they can use to report news and facts and fact-checking.

    • Follow the Outcasts: Support the 300+ journalists who still have the truth but have lost their platform. [See below for the listings we have already of fired staff.]
    • Reject the “New” Post: If a “Doorway” to truth is corrupted by billionaire interests, and with a man with real authoritarian impulses on a hair trigger, it is no longer a doorway; it is a wall. For me, the Post now has DO NOT ENTER signs.
    • Fund Independent Journalism: Our American Democratic Republic depends on newsrooms that are not beholden to corporate authorities. Find voices that sound the missing pieces again, loud as we can.

    Names and Work Areas for the Post Wednesday Massacre

    While the Washington Post has not released a formal master list of the 300+ employees affected by the February 4, 2026 layoffs, many journalists and editors have confirmed their departures publicly. Source of this information: Google’s Gemini.

    Below is a compiled listing of names and roles identified through newsroom reports and public statements as of today, February 5, 2026.

    International & Foreign Desks

    The entire Middle East team and several major foreign bureaus were reportedly eliminated.

    NameRole / BureauIshaan TharoorSenior International Affairs ColumnistGerry ShihJerusalem Bureau ChiefClaire ParkerCairo Bureau ChiefSiobhán O’GradyUkraine Bureau ChiefLizzie JohnsonUkraine CorrespondentAaron WienerBerlin Bureau ChiefPranshu VermaNew Delhi Bureau ChiefEva DouChina Correspondent / TechnologyNilo TabrizyVisual Forensics Reporter (covering Iran/Middle East)

    Technology & Corporate Coverage

    These cuts notably included reporters covering Jeff Bezos’s own company, Amazon.

    NameRoleCaroline O’DonovanAmazon Beat ReporterJoseph MennTechnology Reporter (Cybersecurity/Disinformation)Heather KellyTechnology Reporter (San Francisco)Geoff FowlerTechnology ColumnistNix (First name pending)Tech ReporterDanielle AbrilTech Reporter

    Metro & Local Coverage (D.C., MD, VA)

    The Metro desk was reduced from over 40 staffers to approximately 12.

    NameRoleMichael Brice-SaddlerPeople and Politics ReporterMarissa LangEnterprise ReporterRachel WeinerTransportation ReporterEmma UberCrime and Criminal Justice ReporterKarina ElwoodVirginia Education ReporterDan Rosenzweig-ZiffHigher Education & Youth Culture Reporter

    Specialty Desks (Sports, Books, Culture)

    The Sports and Books sections were shuttered as standalone departments.

    NameRoleJacob BroganBooks EditorNeil GreenbergSports Journalist / AnalyticsJada YuanNational Culture and Entertainment WriterEmmanuel FeltonRace and Ethnicity ReporterBrianna TuckerNational Politics ReporterDino GrandoniClimate/Environmental ReporterJesus RodriguezEditorial Writer / Lifestyle

    Editor’s Note: Contact me via the About Page to remove your name or information from this listing.

    Tactical Notes

    • The “AI Strategy”: Executive Editor Matt Murray explicitly cited AI-generated content and declining search traffic as the primary reasons for this “strategic reset.”
    • The Sports Desk Legacy: The shuttering of the High School Sports operation ends a department that had run for over 100 years.
    • Ideological Critique: Several departing reporters, including Emmanuel Felton, have publicly challenged the “financial” necessity of the move, characterizing it instead as an ideological shift.

    Multimedia Evidence

    The Defense of Silence: Watch Jeff Bezos’s direct response to the endorsement crisis that served as the harbinger for this dismantling.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=007rGogqDNo

    [WATCH] Jeff Bezos defends the Washington Post’s decision

    The Fourth Estate (Our Media) Responded as well.. they see what is being done to a legacy national newspaper, over politics and money. It did not fail in its mission. It was no longer allowed to be the Post.
    Below is a PDF snapshot of Google News coverage (late night, 2/4/26). You can see the headlines and the sources and the reactions. –DrWeb

    Google News – Search – news.google.com Washington post Editorial 2 by Michael McCulley is marked CC0 1.0 Universal. To view a copy of this mark, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/Download

    Bibliography (MLA Style)

    SEE ALSO: Additional Deep-Dive Sources

    Additional Historical Links

    Tags: 2024 Signal, 300 Outcasts, America, Ben Bradlee, CNN, democracy, Dismantling the Post, Donald Trump, Education, Fourth Estate, Google News Coverage, History, Jeff Bezos, Kamala Harris, Katherine Graham, Matt Murray, National Newspaper, News Coverage, One Third of Newsroom, Pentagon Papers, Resistance, Surrender, The Washington Post, Trump, Trump Administration, United States, Warning for America, Will Lewis, YouTube
    #2024Signal #300Outcasts #America #BenBradlee #CNN #democracy #DismantlingThePost #DonaldTrump #Education #FourthEstate #GoogleNewsCoverage #History #JeffBezos #KamalaHarris #KatherineGraham #MattMurray #NationalNewspaper #NewsCoverage #OneThirdOfNewsroom #PentagonPapers #Resistance #Surrender #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #WarningForAmerica #WillLewis #YouTube
  4. MIT rejects Trump administration’s offer of priority federal funding – The Washington Post

    The Great Dome on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Cassandra Klos /Bloomberg)

    Higher Education

    MIT rejects Trump administration deal for priority federal funding

    MIT is one of the nine schools that were asked to agree to adopt conservative priorities and policies in exchange for funding perks.

    October 10, 2025 at 11:16 a.m. EDTToday at 11:16 a.m. EDT, 4 min

    By Susan Svrluga

    MIT’s president turned down the Trump administration’s offer of priority access for federal funding Friday, publicly releasing a letterthat emphasized the eliteuniversity’s values including free expression and “the core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.”

    Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI.

    Last week, the Trump administration offered nine universities a “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” presented as an opportunity to receive competitive advantages from the federal government and from private donors for institutions that sign on. It was the latest attempt by the administration to force colleges into compliance with President Donald Trump’s ideological priorities, after months of federal research funding freezes and investigations into schools’ adherence to civil rights laws.

    The administration asked the schools to, among other changes, agree to prohibit consideration of factors such as gender, race or political views in admissions, scholarships or programming; freeze tuition for five years; adopt a strict definition of gender; and maintain neutrality at all levels when representing the institution. In a letter to universities, administration officials asked for feedback to the compact by Oct. 20.

    One higher education leader in Texas immediately said it was an honor to be among the first schools asked to participate, and a White House official said other colleges had asked to sign on.

    Editor’s Note: See Also these reports, and see below for the compact document sent to universities and colleges; the link shows the Washington Post article with the document text.

    See Also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/10/03/trump-administration-college-funding-compact/

    Compact Document – 22e45e59-75ac-4a81-b1c1-a0ca9753375cDownload

    Continue/Read Original Article Here: MIT rejects Trump administration’s offer of priority federal funding – The Washington Post

    #2025 #America #AntiDemocracy #Books #ConservativeValues #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Massachusetts #MassachusettsInstituteOfTechnology #MIT #Opinion #Politics #PriorityFederalFunding #Reading #RejectsTrumpCompact #Resistance #Science #Technology #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #TrumpCompact #UnitedStates

  5. Opinion | Rail trails offer space to reconnect with community – The Washington Post

    Opinion

    Meet us on the rail trail

    A street artist paints a mural along the Metropolitan Branch Trail in D.C. on Sept. 13, 2023. (Amanda Andrade-Rhoades / For The Washington Post)

    A place to gather as Americans, not partisans.The Island Line Trail on the Burlington, Vermont, waterfront, which Howard Dean played a role in creating. (Courtesy From Rails to Trails Film, LLC)

    By Tommy Thompson and Howard Dean – Tommy Thompson, a Republican, is a former governor of Wisconsin. Howard Dean, a Democrat, is a former governor of Vermont.

    September 28, 2025 at 7:00 a.m. EDT, Yesterday at 7:00 a.m. EDT, 3 min

    Life in much of America today seems fractured, offering fewer opportunities for people to meet, mingle and feel part of the same community. But there is at least one exception: local rail trails — quiet, leafy greenways that follow the paths trains once traveled.

    Over the past six decades, a citizen-led movement has transformed more than 26,000 miles of abandoned rail corridors into thousands of public paths for walking, biking and recreation. Tens of millions of people use these trails each year — in the countryside, in small towns and in big cities. This successful effort to convert rails to trails has never belonged to just one political party.

    Railway tracks incorporated into the High Line in New York in 2018. (Jesse Dittmar / For The Washington Post)

    We know this because we’ve lived it; rail trails have been important to both our lives. One of us (Thompson) grew up along the nation’s first rail trail: the Elroy-Sparta State Trail in Wisconsin, which ran through his family farm. The other (Dean) helped create the Island Line Trail in Vermont, which swings from Burlington out onto a causeway far into Lake Champlain.

    A runner along the High Line in New York in 2018. (Jesse Dittmar / For The Washington Post)

    It was Thompson’s father who helped bring the Elroy-Sparta trail to life, setting in motion a project that revived local communities and became a model for the nation. And it was Dean whose leadership helped secure a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that validated the concept of saving rail corridors.

    These trails do more than repurpose land. They restore communities. They promote health, tourism and local business. They give Americans a place to meet as neighbors, not partisans.

    Continue/Read Original Article Here: Opinion | Rail trails offer space to reconnect with community – Washington Post

    #2025 #America #Biking #community #Education #Health #History #Libraries #LibraryOfCongress #OpenSpaces #Opinion #PublicPaths #RailTrails #Railroads #Rails #Reconnect #Recreation #Science #TheWashingtonPost #Travel #UnitedStates #Walking

  6. Changing the Smithsonian doesn’t erase slavery and the racial wealth gap – The Washington Post

    Changing the Smithsonian doesn’t erase slavery and the racial wealth gap

    There isn’t enough museum space to represent the full extent of the brutality that millions had to endure.

    August 22, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDT, Yesterday at 6:00 a.m. EDT, 5 min

    Column by Michelle Singletary

    The legacy of slavery — and the decades of theft associated with it both before and after it ended — cannot be erased from American history.

    Nor should it be minimized.

    One might assume this didn’t need to be said. But comments made by President Donald Trump suggest otherwise.

    Trump this week accused the Smithsonian Institution of being “WOKE” and too focused on slavery, using his platform to diminish itsimpact and criticize exhibits, including those at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.

    “The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future.”

    I am a descendant of enslaved people, and there isn’t enough museum space to represent the full extent of the brutalitythat millions had to endure.

    In a 10-part award-winning series that I wrote five years ago, I aimed to dispel common misconceptions about race and inequality.

    Sincerely, Michelle

    Yes, Black Americans are entitled to reparations. We’ve earned them.

    In one part, I recounted how my grandmother, Big Mama, told me about her enslaved great-grandmother, Leah Drumwright.

    While caring for her own infant, Leah was forced to nurse the baby of the White woman who owned her. The woman made another demand, one that still fills me with grief and anger.

    Leah was told she could nurse her own baby only on her right breast. Theleft was strictly reserved for the White baby. The woman’s rationale: The left breast, being closer to the heart, produced healthier milk, and therefore, the best milk had to be given to the White child.

    One evening, exhausted from cleaning and cooking for the plantation owners, Leah was caught in the kitchen feeding her child on her left breast.

    Fueled by rage, the White mother struck Leah across the face. A beating followed the slap.

    I want to revisit part of the “Sincerely, Michelle” series because understanding our history with slavery is crucial to addressing economic disparities that still exist for Black Americans.

    The institution that stripped Leah of basic human rights also seeded the discriminatory policies that systematically denied Blacks opportunity.

    After the Civil War, many newlyfreed people purchased land, only to see it stolen. Prosperous Black towns were looted and burned. Blacks were denied the right to vote and were prohibited from living in certain neighborhoods.

    Continue/Read Original Article Here: Changing the Smithsonian doesn’t erase slavery and the racial wealth gap. – The Washington Post

    #2025 #America #DonaldTrump #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #RacialWeathGap #Racism #Resistance #Science #Slavery #SmithsonianInstitution #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates

  7. Opinion | American history can be painful. The Smithsonian should embrace it. – The Washington Post

    Opinion

    Letters to the Editor

    Good foreign policy depends on good information

    Readers also discuss a new way to address Confederate memorials, socialism in New York City and the Smithsonian.

    Today at 4:58 p.m. EDT, 8 min

    The Smithsonian Castle (Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)

    Regarding the Aug. 13 news article “Rubio recasts beliefs with cuts to human rights reports”:

    I oversaw the production of the State Department’s annual human rights reports from 2009 to 2012. For almost 50 years, thousands of career diplomats have participated in the compilation of these reports, which have become the most comprehensive and reliable public assessment of human rights conditions in almost 200 countries.

    Mandated by Congress in the 1970s to inform decision-making about foreign aid and trade policies, the reports have become an indispensable resource. Global leaders use them to assess risks where they conduct business. Immigration judges in the United States and elsewhere rely on them when evaluating asylum claims. Civil society activists turn to them for credible information when they operate in places where publishing criticism of government actions leads to official reprisals. Journalists and representatives of humanitarian organizations use them to orient themselves as they begin working in complex environments.

    All of these benefits are now being jeopardized by the Trump administration’s decision to slash the comprehensive nature of these reports and to dramatically politicize their content. Good foreign policy depends on good information. That begins with thorough, independent accounting of the state of human rights everywhere.

    Weakening this foundation risks blinding us to them. Once the credibility of our reporting is lost, it will be extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.

    Continue/Read Original Article Here: Opinion | American history can be painful. The Smithsonian should embrace it. – The Washington Post

    #2025 #America #AmericanHistory #DonaldTrump #Health #History #HumanRightsReport #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #MandatedByCongress #Opinion #Politics #Resistance #Rubio #Science #SmithsonianInstitution #TheWashingtonPost #Trump #TrumpAdministration #USStateDepartment #UnitedStates