Meanwhile, some of the non-independent “journalists” are getting what they deserve at last. The upper management at WaPo has replaced the chief editor with an old-fashioned hardass who is trying to restore the BUSINESS. He told the young idiots: “Nobody is reading your stuff”. Readership has dropped by half.
In response they launched a tweetfest saying publicly that they couldn’t obey the boss because he’s a white man.
Well, the next move is up to him. Now that the sexist racist bigots have showed their true colors, he needs to fire the whole miserable batch and bring back some of the “independents” who departed because they couldn’t stand working for idiots. Or bring in some outsiders who are NOT trained in all the stupid ways of “journalism”.
From what I’ve read, he doesn’t seem to be serious about reforming the actual product. He’s screwing around with new payment plans and new organization charts. This may be just the publicly visible side of a more appropriate solution. Can’t tell yet.
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I think the product is simply unsalvageable. After being pelted with contempt and nastiness for 30 years, most people have realized we simply don’t NEED a product that brings us “news”, no matter how well or badly it’s made. We’ve quit the useless addiction.
This is different from the Toyota phenomenon. People need cars. Detroit was providing shitty cars. When Toyota showed how to make a GOOD car, it won the battle until Detroit figured out again how to make a GOOD car.
Detroit DID grasp the problem accurately, as illustrated by this 1971 GM film aimed at its employees. “Journalism” does NOT grasp the real problem at all. It only wants to modernize the marketing without improving the product.
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Update several days later: The WaPo editor initially failed to do the right thing, and now he’s backed down all the way, letting the fuckheads run the asylum. Well, this will continue to be a self-correcting problem, as the readers continue to depart en masse. Emerson always wins in the end.
Polistra's Mill 