Americans must certainly be worried, to deserve this level of rhetorical aggression. What would be done to salvage a dying American democracy without Jeff Bezos’ personal media outlet spearheading the ‘fake news’ brigade, and then leading the very effort they claimed to shed light on with a false story stating that Russia hacked an electric grid in Vermont without so much as making a single call to the Vermont utilities commissioner by way of fact-checking?
Have no fear, America, the Washington Post "thought it would be a good, concise value statement that conveys who we are to the millions of readers who have come to us for the first time over the last year," spokeswoman Kris Coratti told CNN Money. The news outlet plans to start with the slogan on Snapchat, before rolling it out on other platforms "in the coming weeks," Coratti added.
The twittersphere was mixed between praise and mockery of the melodrama. But among fellow media organizations, it was mostly mockery. John Podhoretz, of the New York Post, quipped, “I should go have lunch but I can’t stop thinking of new Washington Post mottos.” Mollie Hemingway, senior editor at The Federalist, tweeted an alternative slogan: “Like Breitbart, but for the other side.” Hemingway tweeted this approximately one hour after declaring, “Good news everyone,” with a fake Post slogan that read, “Finally Back After 8 Year Break.”
People within the media and outside the media generally found plenty of material for a good laugh. Here is a look at some of the funnier tweets that were posted:
— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) February 22, 2017
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) February 22, 2017
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) February 22, 2017
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 22, 2017
— (((David Byron (@dcbyron) February 22, 2017
— Jack Shafer (@jackshafer) February 22, 2017
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) February 22, 2017
Bezos wrote in in a statement that the paper has observed a "steady increase in subscriptions across the course of the past year," intentionally masking the paper’s change in subscribers since Donald Trump was elected US president. Nevertheless, National Public Radio reported that the Post would be adding 60 newsroom jobs in the wake of Trump’s victory, an 8 percent growth in the paper’s staff. A company memo from publisher Fred Ryan said that the Post had become a "profitable and growing company" and that new subscriptions have grown by 75 percent.
