The Washington Post’s editorial page went off the rails long ago, but it still managed to remain one of a shrinking number of great investigative newsrooms. I hope something picks up the slack.
Thanks for nothing, Bezos.
Crazy thought: maybe billionaire vanity projects aren't such a great model for essential civic functions.
It's just heartbreaking to see these farewell messages from Post reporters whose bylines I've been reading and who I've been an occasional source for. So much talent squandered.
@mattblaze yeah, I was on the fence about cancelling my subscription as is, due to the opinion section just becoming utter trash. Looks like they now also decimated their news coverage, so really no reason to subscribe to them anymore.
Not sure what daily newspaper in the US is still worthwhile. For opinion, I've already switched to die Zeit, as a German newspaper with a pretty heavy US bent, but that doesn't exactly work for daily news.
Feb 4, 2026, 6:11 PM@sophieschmieg @mattblaze University has a site license (kind of). Can access via ProQuest. Gives me access to the stories without the moral burden of paying Jeff Bezos money. Similar reasoning justifies my looking at WSJ.
@sophieschmieg @mattblaze I can’t speak to it from experience, but I’ve heard good things about the Philadelphia Inquirer. (Seems to come up every time I see this basic topic)
@darthnull @sophieschmieg Glad to support the Inquirer, which has become great, but they don't quite have comprehensive national scope.
@sophieschmieg WSJ and NYT still have great investigative and national coverage, even if their editorial choices are, um, well, you know.
Guardian and ProPublica are great, but don't have the comprehensive national scope to replace WaPo/NYT/WSJ.
@mattblaze yeah, the nyt's opinion section was the reason I cancelled my subscription there years ago. But now the WaPo's opinion section (and it looks like news coverage) is also trash, so I guess the nyt is back on the menu
@sophieschmieg I take the attitude that the value I want to pay for is the boots on the ground writing the stories and digging out the dirt, and I'm willing to hold my nose to some extent on the editorials as long as the news is trustworthy, significant, and comprehensive
I've long wondered - do the WSJ opinion writers read any of their reporters' articles? (Some of the NYT opinions I can forgive due to their policy of airing a variety of points of view, although I can get those opinions, and attendant ignorance of civics and economics, in a more unfiltered form on Nextdoor.com)
@mattblaze yeah it was "we should sicc the military of protestors" that made the stench impossible to ignore back then
Feb 5, 2026, 5:42 PM@sophieschmieg @mattblaze I look at Zeit.de, SZ.de, lemonde.fr and The Economist a lot. I find that gives me multiple view points.
https://substack.com/@thecontinent has interesting Africa coverage from a non-colonial viewpoint
Oh, and Anne Appelbaum, Molly White and 404 Media
@mattblaze especially in a moment where billionaires are all in the same groupchat...
@luis_in_brief @mattblaze Are we talking this particular group chat?
EFTA02694698.pdf
@mattblaze Didn't Athens memorialize rich taxpayers by naming warships or similar after them? (Not saying that's good or bad, but wouldn't it be nice for the ordinary taxpayer to be able to point to a plaque that gives their name as having paid the taxes that funded two cubicles in the local DMV's bathroom.)
@mattblaze but he doesn't seem to be particularly interested in subsidizing it, I assume the layoffs are happening because he wants it to be independently financially viable?
@mattblaze In the old days, the wealthy elite would build theatres, schools, hospitals and civic centres. Nowadays, they do everything they can to shut them down. #EatTheRich
@mattblaze
Bring back “The Evening Star” 😎