Washington Post Accepts then Rejects Anti-Elon Musk Advertisement

[Anonymous]

I guess some newspapers are bending to the will of their billionaire owners...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/business/washington-post-ad-trump-musk.html

Washington Post Cancels Ad From Groups Calling for Trump to Fire Musk
The newspaper told Common Cause, an advocacy group, that it was pulling its special ad, which would have covered the front and back pages of some Tuesday editions.

An advertisement that was set to run in some editions of The Washington Post on Tuesday calling for Elon Musk to be fired from his role in government was abruptly canceled, according to one of the advocacy groups that had ordered the ad.

Common Cause said it was told by the newspaper on Friday that the ad was being pulled. The full-page ad, known as a wraparound, would have covered the front and back pages of editions delivered to the White House, the Pentagon and Congress, and was planned in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.

[Anonymous]

Well egghead Bezos is in charge at the WP

[Anonymous]

Glad I canceled my subscription but damn Bezos is a POS

[Anonymous]

Well, at least they don't have my subscription money any more.

[Anonymous]

Scary. They're not even trying at unbiased-ness anymore.

[Anonymous]

Didn’t DOGE already cancel the WaPo subscription for those locations?

[Anonymous]

FWIW, I think this was a terrible decision, but I also don't think canceling an ad necessarily reflects what the people running the news coverage would think. Has there been any indication in their news pages that the Post is going soft on Trump? (The editorial page is a whole other question, unfortunately...)

[Anonymous]

As cynical as this take is, Will Lewis probably thought this was the best course of action from a strictly profitability perspective. On the one hand, he turns down a highly profitable $115K ad buy. On the other hand, he pisses off Trump and all the revenue from enterprise sub contracts at the House, Senate, FBI, NIH, $insert_gov_agency_here, all disappear. He attempts to split the baby saying only the wrap can't be run since MAGA-hats won't look beyond the front page anyway. Unfortunately that didn't work. The bad optics never enter his mind because Will Lewis and the rest of the exec team have no clue about branding, or have drunk the kool-aid about how this will boost their reputation in the long-term even though there's short term pain (lol).

Either way, this exposes WaPo for what it is - not endorsing was never about "not appearing biased". Same with not running the cartoon. Because this was a pure business decision that had nothing to do with editorial "integrity".

ughhhh I hate this timeline.

[Anonymous]

I am troubled by this but I'm keeping my paid digital subscription.

There really isn't "free news".

If nobody on the Dem side pays for it, we're going to end up with more outlets similar to Fox News.

The Post has had a couple of good longer articles just in the last week that demonstrated to me that reporters there are still on the ball.

Woke-ism made "cancelling" cool. Now look where we are!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am troubled by this but I'm keeping my paid digital subscription.

There really isn't "free news".

If nobody on the Dem side pays for it, we're going to end up with more outlets similar to Fox News.

The Post has had a couple of good longer articles just in the last week that demonstrated to me that reporters there are still on the ball.

Woke-ism made "cancelling" cool. Now look where we are!

I hear you and absolutely respect the reporters. But I can't keep reading a newspaper where I know the leadership will do what it takes to protect Trump. They publish some stuff critical to him, but what will they hold back? Also I am generally just not giving money to Jeff Bezos because he's a POS (no, I don't use Amazon)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am troubled by this but I'm keeping my paid digital subscription.

There really isn't "free news".

If nobody on the Dem side pays for it, we're going to end up with more outlets similar to Fox News.

The Post has had a couple of good longer articles just in the last week that demonstrated to me that reporters there are still on the ball.

Woke-ism made "cancelling" cool. Now look where we are!

DOGE is canceling government employees. Nothing Woke about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Glad I canceled my subscription but damn Bezos is a POS

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am troubled by this but I'm keeping my paid digital subscription.

There really isn't "free news".

If nobody on the Dem side pays for it, we're going to end up with more outlets similar to Fox News.

The Post has had a couple of good longer articles just in the last week that demonstrated to me that reporters there are still on the ball.

Woke-ism made "cancelling" cool. Now look where we are!

DOGE is canceling government employees. Nothing Woke about that.

PP. I was a fed. I don't live in DC anymore. My hometown metro papers are vulnerable to failing and all their national news is piped in from other sources.

I dislike what Bezos is doing to accommodate Trump but some part of me wonders if what he is doing is just to allow the Post some breathing room to report.

Again. How are these sources going to survive with low subscriptions? The oligarchs don't have to operate them for our amusement.

I think WaPo subscribers made their point, but abandoning the paper will cost us more in the long run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am troubled by this but I'm keeping my paid digital subscription.

There really isn't "free news".

If nobody on the Dem side pays for it, we're going to end up with more outlets similar to Fox News.

The Post has had a couple of good longer articles just in the last week that demonstrated to me that reporters there are still on the ball.

Woke-ism made "cancelling" cool. Now look where we are!

DOGE is canceling government employees. Nothing Woke about that.

PP. I was a fed. I don't live in DC anymore. My hometown metro papers are vulnerable to failing and all their national news is piped in from other sources.

I dislike what Bezos is doing to accommodate Trump but some part of me wonders if what he is doing is just to allow the Post some breathing room to report.

Again. How are these sources going to survive with low subscriptions? The oligarchs don't have to operate them for our amusement.

I think WaPo subscribers made their point, but abandoning the paper will cost us more in the long run.

A press run by the oligarchy is not a free press

[Anonymous]

I feel
Like the only reliable news is from the Guardian or Reuters