In just one week, The Washington Post publicly and spectacularly imploded. Instead of extinguishing the fire that’s burning its already nonexistent credibility, the Bezos-owned media outlet is doubling down on its lie-ridden articles and supporting problematic staff like disgraced doxxer Taylor Lorenz, even as it goes down in flames.
The Washington Post’s rough week started with a jury decision ordering Amber Heard, who described herself in a WaPo article manufactured by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) as “a public figure representing domestic abuse,” to pay her ex-husband some $15 million in damages for ruining his life.
Nearly four years after WaPo ran the defamatory article in which Heard insinuated accusations against Depp of “sexual violence” that the publication didn’t bother to verify or ask Depp for comment about, there was no apology or a well-deserved retraction from WaPo for publishing lies. Instead, the paper that brags about being a light in a world where “democracy dies in darkness” half-heartedly added an editor’s note to the story simply stating what the jury found Heard liable for.
Shortly after the Depp-Heard trial implicated WaPo for publishing garbage masquerading as a win for “Believe All Women,” several Washington Post writers led by the publication’s unhinged national political reporter Felicia Sonmez, who essentially called for Kobe Bryant to be canceled shortly after his death, publicly dogpiled their colleague David Weigel for simply retweeting a joke about women being either bisexual or bipolar.
Weigel apologized for sharing the post but that didn’t stop Sonmez from bombarding him and other WaPo reporters on Twitter and on a work Slack channel.
Sonmez’s reaction prompted the publication’s leaders, who should have been focused on crafting an incredibly ashamed retraction for publishing Heard’s ACLU propaganda, to make an official call for peace within WaPo’s walls.
In the wake of the recent social media dustups involving WaPo journalists, Executive Editor Sally Buzbee sends a memo to journalists admonishing them to treat each other with respect and kindness: pic.twitter.com/nRd5h0kLLD
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) June 5, 2022
Sonmez’s incessant blubbering on social media continued over the weekend, even after WaPo dropped everything to denounce “harassment, discrimination or bias of any sort” including what appears to be a retweet of an online quip.
Example 5 billion and then some. Especially great when a statement from your newspaper’s executive editor provides fodder for *more* harassment. pic.twitter.com/nwNLPOcSDm
— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 5, 2022
At the same time Sonmez was trashing her employer, The Washington Post’s disgraced doxxer Taylor Lorenz came under fire for lying about her attempts to contact two YouTubers known for covering the Depp-Heard trial for comment. Both YouTubers, “LegalBytes” host Alyte Mazeika and “ThatUmbrellaGuy,” criticized Lorenz for refusing to do her job correctly but the editors at WaPo didn’t bat an eye at her sleazy tactics until later.
Not only was the piece stealth-edited to hide Lorenz’s journalistic failure, but the first attempt at fixing the piece wasn’t even a sufficient correction. As a result, Lorenz’s fireable offenses were couched with another, lengthier editor’s note appearing to endorse Lorenz’s strategy of seeking comment after the article was published.
“The first published version of this story stated incorrectly that Internet influencers Alyte Mazeika and ThatUmbrellaGuy had been contacted for comment before publication. In fact, only Mazeika was asked, via Instagram. After the story was published, The Post continued to seek comment from Mazeika via social media and queried ThatUmbrellaGuy for the first time,” the editor’s note stated.
It was only towards the end of the note that WaPo admitted that secretly removing Lorenz’s claim that she properly reached out for comment was “a violation of our corrections policy.”
Once again, WaPo failed to fully acknowledge how disastrous it was to publish such a story without following proper and nearly universal comment standards. Instead of chastising, demoting, or even firing their star internet columnist for her history of unethical coverage — including doxxing the anonymous owner of LibsofTikTok, lying about being harassed by a Drudge Report editor, and falsely accusing people of using slurs — WaPo keeps problematic reporters like Lorenz on board and on the front page.
It’s a pattern that WaPo has gladly adhered to with their subpar editors and reporters who have published erroneous and shameful coverage and “fact” “checks” that are just a front for political propaganda.
Over and over, The Washington Post has lied about the Russia collusion hoax, guns, Democrats’ abortion goals, rising gas prices, and so much more. Without a moment of hesitation, WaPo has wrongfully smeared future Supreme Court justices with fake rape allegations, critical race theory opponents, schoolkids wearing MAGA hats, peaceful Trump supporters, and even Jesus.
When they get caught in their deceptions, WaPo simply stealth edits glaring misinformation out of its thorny articles and occasionally slaps an unapologetic statement at the top with hopes that everyone forgets their grave mistakes by tomorrow.
The Washington Post’s credibility was already long gone, but if this week has shown its readers anything, it’s that you can’t trust the corrupt corporate press to protect democracy. After all, democracy dies at the hands of publications like WaPo who are willing to sacrifice truth, lie, cheat, and scam their way through a news cycle to accomplish partisan goals.
Source: The Federalist
