An American news institution is dead. Help build the next great newsroom.RIP the Washington Post. Killed by Lord Bezos.
Hey guys, it’s Sarah. Here’s a thing that should enrage you. It certainly enrages me: The Washington Post fired a third of its staff this week. This comes after its owner, Jeff Bezos, spent more than a year trying to curry favor with Donald Trump. He spiked the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris. He remade the opinion section by pushing out people who were critical of Trump. He bled the paper of much of its top talent. As you can imagine, subscribers fled in droves. But rather than try and right the ship by responding to the audience, he chose to slash the Post even further. Marty Baron, the paper’s editor from the Before Times, called the move “among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.” I agree. This is an incredibly dark moment. It’s an important one too, not just for the Post and the news industry, but for the basic notion that the purpose of journalism is to seek truth, report it thoroughly, and hold power to account without fear or favor. The Post’s destruction isn’t an aberration. Paramount just executed a Trump-blessed takeover of CBS News, and has turned the network into a pro-Trump propaganda machine. Now the billionaire owners of Paramount want to gobble up CNN as well. And the destruction of the Los Angeles Times by its pro-Trump billionaire owner has been even worse. So, yeah—old media is failing, catastrophically. But here’s one thing I can tell you with absolute certainty: At The Bulwark, we won’t follow that path. We will always, always be honest and direct about this administration, and what it’s doing to America. We will never play angles or shade the truth to keep sources happy. We won’t hold back for fear of Trump’s FCC or because we need some kind of corporate merger approved. Over just the past few weeks, we have published dispatches from Minneapolis, an essay on the legacy of Auschwitz, and newsmaking interviews with elected officials. We’ve run exposés on vaccine policies and the measles outbreaks, deeply reported articles on pediatric cancer research, and piercing essays on the regime’s plans for the 2026 elections. We’ve have a new series on the remaking of the U.S. military. We’ve sent a reporter to Springfield, Ohio to monitor the threats to the Haitian community. We produced a first-person video showing what it’s like to live on this administration’s proposed $3-a-meal diet. We’ve covered the Epstein files, the government shutdown fight, and even the Melania movie. We are comprehensive. We are committed. We are building. That’s because we know that liberal democracy cannot function without a vibrant, independent, free press. Over time, the media business has had its ups and downs. But never before have we seen this kind of industry-wide, all-out capitulation from journalism’s most powerful and influential players. But now, we are. Here’s the hard truth: The old guard isn’t coming over that hill to save us. The stale institutions of the past aren’t going to suddenly rise to the moment. Who is? Easy. It’s you. A democracy is only as good as its people. The same is true of the media. We can only have a healthy, functioning press if there’s a critical mass of people who demand it, consume it, share it, and support it. For a limited time: Join Bulwark+ at 20% off through election day 2026. Support the mission. Support independent journalism. Join a community built on good faith.When we started this thing seven years ago, I had no idea what it would be. I thought we were starting a small, center-right news aggregator to circulate clips about all the bad stuff Trump was doing. But we built it, people supported it, and today, The Bulwark is one of the largest independent media companies in the country. That didn’t happen by accident. It’s because real people—people like you—decided to ride with us, and be part of the solution. We don’t have subscribers, we have a community. A community of people who care about democracy and saving our American way of life so much that they’re willing to drag their friends and neighbors and colleagues and family members along for the ride too. They—you—built this community. But the work’s not done. What the times now demand is something different. Something braver, more honest. Something scrappier. A place that understands the stakes. So come help us build that place. Come be part of what is—somehow—turning out to be one of the last real newsrooms in America. Subscribe to Bulwark+. Sarah Longwell You’re a free subscriber to The Bulwark—the largest pro-democracy news and analysis bundle on Substack. For unfettered access to all our newsletters and to access ad-free and member-only shows, become a paying subscriber.We’re going to send you a lot of content—newsletters and alerts for shows so you can read and watch on your schedule. Don’t care for so much email? You can update your personal email preferences as often as you like. To update the list of newsletters or alerts you received from The Bulwark, click here. Having trouble with something related to your account? Check out our constantly-updated FAQ, which likely has an answer for you.
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