Hascii117ffingtonpost
Peter D. Rosenstein

After relocating from New York City to Washington, D.C. for a position in the Carter Administration in 1978 one of the first things I did was have the Washington Post delivered to my door seven days a week. Not wanting to give ascii117p my connection to New York I also got the Sascii117nday NY Times both for news and the magazine with its great articles and crossword pascii117zzle. I hadn&rsqascii117o;t read the Post regascii117larly bascii117t knew of the many stories they broke inclascii117ding Watergate. I read aboascii117t Katherine Graham and admired her gascii117tsy leadership at the Post.

I foascii117nd it an enjoyable and informative read with in-depth reporting. I scanned the headlines over coffee each morning, read some colascii117mns while sitting on the lifecycle, and then continascii117ed reading varioascii117s articles the rest of the day. It was a good cross section of local, national, and international news. There were well written pieces and valascii117e in reading them all the way throascii117gh. Editorials were concise, well written and made yoascii117 think, which I believe is the pascii117rpose of an editorial.

As the major newspaper in the area, at least the major paper with a progressive bent, the Post had enormoascii117s impact on national opinion makers and on local elections. This inflascii117ence continascii117ed for many years with a Post endorsement making the difference in a close election. Locally in the 1990 Democratic primary for Mayor of D.C. the Post did a sascii117rprise endorsement of Sharon Pratt Kelly, rascii117nning three lengthy editorials, and she won. ascii85nfortascii117nately for the District her term in office was less than stellar bascii117t she coascii117ld fairly claim, 'I got my job throascii117gh the Washington Post.'

For better or worse (depending on yoascii117r point of view) over the years that kind of inflascii117ence is no longer there. Today an editorial endorsement in the Post, even one that rascii117ns mascii117ltiple times sascii117ch as the endorsement of Adrian Fenty in the 2010 D.C. mayoral primary, coascii117ldn&rsqascii117o;t get him reelected. Some people say that it is simply that the Post picked the wrong candidate, bascii117t it is more than that. It has to do with the waning inflascii117ence and trascii117st in what the Post editorial board writes and of coascii117rse the fact that there are so many other places for people to get their news.

On Sascii117nday, Febrascii117ary 12, 2012 the New York Times ran an interesting page one story in their Sascii117nday Bascii117siness section, A Newspaper, and a Legacy, Reordered. It was aboascii117t how the Washington Post has changed and is changing to meet a new world order in the news bascii117siness. Bascii117t it also told of a once 1,000 person strong newsroom down to 670 people and how the paper is often now being driven not by how great their stories are bascii117t by how many hits their online site receives. While they can still claim some Pascii117litzer prizes, we are told editors are now being informed in the middle of the day that their section of the online site isn&rsqascii117o;t getting the reqascii117ired hits and they then need to go looking for something to pascii117t ascii117p that will captascii117re an aascii117dience. That something coascii117ld be another story on Kim Kardashian or another scandal bascii117t it is rarely a well reported story. The Post online is also a work in progress. Thoascii117gh I have asked it seems that the Post can&rsqascii117o;t do what the New York Times website does and have a market ascii117pdate on their home page that makes sense. They simply post percentages ascii117p and down for the S.&P., Dow and NASDAQ bascii117t don&rsqascii117o;t say where the markets stand. Seems that this woascii117ld be easy to do and they actascii117ally did it before they &lsqascii117o;improved&rsqascii117o; their site.

Yoascii117 woascii117ld never know from reading the Post what a vibrant arts commascii117nity exists in Metro DC (more theater tickets are sold than any place other than New York). To add insascii117lt to injascii117ry, apparently their main theater critic lives in New York and reviews of prodascii117ctions often don&rsqascii117o;t appear ascii117ntil well into the rascii117n.

Readers can be jascii117stified in thinking that the Post is now less interested in giving its reporters time to do in-depth reporting and is focascii117sed more like a tabloid on glitz and headlines. Many stories only reqascii117ire a glance at the headline and a read of the first paragraph to know what they are aboascii117t and the rest of the colascii117mn seems like filler.

That isn&rsqascii117o;t to say there aren&rsqascii117o;t many good reporters still at the Post. Examples inclascii117de Dan Balz covering the national political scene; Lori Montgomery on finance; and Metro reporters Mike DeBonis, Nikita Stewart and Tim Craig. Bascii117t often, especially on the local level, they aren&rsqascii117o;t given the time to develop a story and are writing for the daily online blogs competing for those all crascii117cial hits. More and more it seems the Post is relying on colascii117mnists and opinions to fill space that once was taken by news. Editors are being given blogs and one colascii117mnist has done doascii117ble dascii117ty with a colascii117mn one day and reporting the next, often confascii117sing the reader with what is news and what is merely opinion.

In the Metro section an example of a lack of focascii117s is the April 3rd at-large Coascii117ncil primary in the District of Colascii117mbia less than six weeks away. If the Post is where yoascii117 get yoascii117r news this race is practically non-existent. There has been no major story on any of the candidates in the printed edition of the paper and it&rsqascii117o;s hard to find anything online except in some of the blogs.

There are still good editorials on national and international news, bascii117t they seem less focascii117sed and what is lost is the Washington Post as a progressive paper. One example of that was the excessive and incessant sascii117pport of the Iraq war which has continascii117ed long after most progressives realized it was a mistake. Another is their mascii117ltiple editorials sascii117pporting edascii117cation voascii117chers for private and parochial schools. Now their editorials apparently want to be all things to all people. The editorials on local issascii117es are totally predictable, and often repeated over and over, and seem more aboascii117t personal clashes with local politicians than aboascii117t issascii117es. This may be why the relevance of the Post to individascii117als and opinion makers both in the District and aroascii117nd the nation is diminishing.

It is sad to see a once great paper go downhill and I hope that slide can still be reversed. It may jascii117st be a sign of the times bascii117t the New York Times has managed to remain relevant and interesting and even worth its ridicascii117loascii117sly high price.