4 ms·

After the Bezos acquisition, the Washington Post abandoned their already lowered standards. They're now racing to the bottom to become BuzzFeed 2.0.

arca_vorago 9y ago
Don't forget their long status as a mockingbird operation. You got downvoted with no comment because there is very little intellectually honest retort to be had, but in their defense, the surveillance state and general degredation of journalism as a whole has affected much more than just WaPo. The fourth estate is dying and the internet, which should be it's replacement, is under legislative attack because it is a threat to the oligarchy.
- losteric 9y ago
  Well, the internet is also under attack from various actors seeing to distort the narrative for their own means. Tons of planted comments and highly questionable "news" websites". Traditional media had similar problems, but to a much lesser extend... and the biases/propaganda were much more obvious.
  - arca_vorago 9y ago
    Indeed, the sockpuppetry really hit hard around 2010/2011, and I've yet to see a website handle it very well. Honestly HN is one of the last places I take the actual time to comment on because of it. There are some methods that slashdot uses that I think could also be helpful, but there is no easy fix. Like you said though, one interesting side-effect is that for the astute reader you can discern what the talking points of the day/week/month are by paying attention to the narrative.
- SyneRyder 9y ago
  For folks who didn't understand the Operation Mockingbird reference, it seems to refer to the CIA in the 50s - 70s hiring the publisher & co-owner of the Washington Post, to run a propaganda operation feeding misinformation to reporters at all the major newspapers in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
shostack 9y ago
I dunno, personally I feel they've done decently with covering politics lately.
d_e_solomon 9y ago
If I'm going to read a daily, it's probably the Washington Post, NY Times or the WSJ. I haven't noticed a particular drop in quality of any of those three. Why do you think the Post has gotten worse?

arca_vorago 9y ago

Don't forget their long status as a mockingbird operation. You got downvoted with no comment because there is very little intellectually honest retort to be had, but in their defense, the surveillance state and general degredation of journalism as a whole has affected much more than just WaPo. The fourth estate is dying and the internet, which should be it's replacement, is under legislative attack because it is a threat to the oligarchy.

losteric 9y ago
Well, the internet is also under attack from various actors seeing to distort the narrative for their own means. Tons of planted comments and highly questionable "news" websites". Traditional media had similar problems, but to a much lesser extend... and the biases/propaganda were much more obvious.
- arca_vorago 9y ago
  Indeed, the sockpuppetry really hit hard around 2010/2011, and I've yet to see a website handle it very well. Honestly HN is one of the last places I take the actual time to comment on because of it. There are some methods that slashdot uses that I think could also be helpful, but there is no easy fix. Like you said though, one interesting side-effect is that for the astute reader you can discern what the talking points of the day/week/month are by paying attention to the narrative.
SyneRyder 9y ago
For folks who didn't understand the Operation Mockingbird reference, it seems to refer to the CIA in the 50s - 70s hiring the publisher & co-owner of the Washington Post, to run a propaganda operation feeding misinformation to reporters at all the major newspapers in the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird

shostack 9y ago

I dunno, personally I feel they've done decently with covering politics lately.

d_e_solomon 9y ago

If I'm going to read a daily, it's probably the Washington Post, NY Times or the WSJ. I haven't noticed a particular drop in quality of any of those three. Why do you think the Post has gotten worse?