One of the most unintentionally hilarious quotes from the media of 2023 appeared in Thursday’s edition of the Politico Playbook newsletter.
“The first reaction was shock,” an anonymous Washington Post reporter said, referring to a recent round of forced buyouts for nearly 250 staff writers and editors at the paper. “The Washington Post had done so well — was so profitable in the years of Trump, of Covid, and was owned by one of the richest people in the world … We’re talking about a ‘baby and the bath water,’ sort of ‘shoot first, ask questions later’ approach that left people really confused.”
Shorter version: Life was pretty great at the Post when we could run non-stop hysterical coverage of Donald Trump and an uncontrollable virus that scared everyone just in time for the election! Plus, we had a billionaire backer who gave it all his blessing! Those were the days…
To be sure, nobody should celebrate when a person loses their income. And that’s why I’m just as sorry for all of them as they would be for me if I lost my job. (It’s okay to laugh.)
It turns out that fomenting racial divisions, hyping up a worrisome pandemic, and perpetuating the Russia-collusion fake out was just a short-term business strategy. Who could’ve known?!
Now the Post is trying to recapture the magic with ridiculous stories like the one this week headlined, “Trump reprises dehumanizing language on undocumented immigrants, warns of ‘invasion.'” It had all the greatest hits.
Think of the children!: “During a campaign event in Reno, Nev.,” the article said, “the clear polling leader in the Republican race blamed President Biden for what he portrayed as a dangerous incursion on the homeland — although many migrants detained at the southern border are parents and children seeking protection, and studies show that undocumented immigrants are less likely than U.S. citizens to commit crimes.”
That’s a classic. Rather than acknowledge that, at minimum, Americans say in large majorities that the open Southern border is a serious problem that Biden and Democrats refuse to address, the Post, just as before, is fixated on reminding its readers that ackshully, many of the world’s destitute dumping themselves into our care are women and children, so have a heart, will ya?
Trump is Hitler!: Trump “accused them in a speech and in a social media post of ‘poisoning the blood’ of the country,” the story continued. “That language has caused alarm among some civil rights advocates and immigrant groups, who have compared it to the writings of Adolf Hitler.”
If at first you don’t succeed, heil, heil again. Perhaps there’s still some mileage in the Nazi charge. Biden’s campaign instructions for the media suggest there is.
The tried and true “claimed without evidence”!: “He is the first former U.S. president to be indicted on criminal charges and has been indicted in four cases,” the Post said. “Trump has denied wrongdoing and alleged without evidence that his four indictments and 91 charges are politically motivated.”
What made the Trump-era “claimed without evidence” so annoying before is that it was always used in reference to an expression of opinion, for which evidence isn’t needed to hold. That’s why it’s an opinion. But to use the grating, childish line in reference to a matter literally involving a political opposition’s prosecution of a former president for the supposed crimes of exercising his First Amendment rights and retaining government documents — which every president before him has done — is truly a work of art. Trump doesn’t need “evidence.” There’s extensively documented proof that it’s politically motivated. It’s on video!
It seems The Washington Post doesn’t have the income coming in anymore. Maybe a few more articles like that will do the trick.