obit. (13. 146)

The venerable and respected family publication and paper of record purchased by a holding company owned by Jeff Bezos in 2013, appearing at the time to be a genuine act of philanthropy to save the struggling regional daily when the Amazon billionaire seemed to be politically agnostic and more aloof than most of his monied cohort though in retrospect and re-evaluated through the lens of the likes of Elon Musk’s leveraged takeover of another media outlet we have to wonder, announced, at the direction of the executive editor of a massive cut in staff, eliminating one third of reporters and doing away with its sports and literary desks and foreign bureaus. Whilst the Washington Post is again struggling financially after a period of revival and increased engagement owing to the injection of cash and social media savvy—due in no small part to Bezos’ shadow-cum-full-throated endorsement of Trump and currying favour with the administration—and is symptomatic of the journalistic landscape at large, the layoffs, resulting in significant cancellations of subscription, and restructuring do seem like a concession with the dual objective of divesting oneself from a losing venture, although the cuts preserve the core of the capital’s coverage and reporting on DC, which during those golden years above—benefitting from the Trump bump of chaotic publicity during the first term and continuing—which drew his ire, casting aspersions against non-propagandists as enemies of the people. Scaling back foreign correspondents, however, may limit the broader story. The announcement also coincides with the premiere of the expensive flop of a vanity biopic of FLOTUS, a joint project of Amazon Films and MGM Studios (whose box-office comes at the same time as the final release of the Epstein files) as well as previously being a corporate donor to the inauguration and destruction of the White House East Wing.