The mass exodus from the Washington Post continues, this time with Jen Rubin who set the place on fire on her way out.
Rubin has decided that WaPo is no longer the place for her and rather than departing quietly, she decided to raise hell and check all the leftist buzzword boxes along the way.
Look:
Jen Rubin’s resignation announcement from The Washington Post: “Jeff Bezos and his cronies accommodate and enable the most acute threat to American democracy—Donald Trump…” pic.twitter.com/tFdWdQd4Im
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) January 13, 2025
In her resignation letter, she slammed the outlet’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos and detailed her next steps.
“Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission – defending, protecting and advancing democracy,” she wrote. “The Washington Post’s billionaire owner and enlisted management are among the offenders. They have undercut the values central to The Post’s mission and that of all journalism: integrity, courage, and independence. I cannot justify remaining at the post. Jeff Bezos and his cronies accommodate and enable the most acute threat to American democracy-Donald Trump-at a time when a vibrant free press is more essential than ever to our democracy’s survival and capacity to thrive.”
“I therefore resign from The Post, effective today. In doing so, I join a throng of veteran journalists so distressed over The Post’s management they felt compelled to resign,” she added.
“The decay and compromised principles of corporate and billionaire-owned media underscore and urgent need for alternatives. Americans are eager for innovative and independent journalism that offers lively, unflinching coverage free from cant, conflicts of interest and moral equivocation.”
At this point, Rubin begins plugging her “new outlet” which will feature content from everyone’s favorite journalist subgenre: Pro-democracy contrarians.
“Which is why I am so thrilled to simultaneously announce this new outlet, The Contrarian: Not Owned by Anybody. The Contrarian will offer daily columns, weekly features, podcasts and social media from me and fellow pro-democracy contrarians, many of whom have decamped from corporate media, others who were never a part of it,” she explains. “I am launching this endeavor with my cofounder, Norm Eisen. Founding contributors will include Joyce Vance, Andy Borowitz, Laurence Tribe, Katie Phang, George Conway, Olivia Julianna, Harry Litman (who also recently resigned from the LA Times similar to mine for leaving the Post), and Asha Rangappa, among many other brilliant voices. We will provide fearless and distinctive reported opinion and cultural commentary without phony balance, euphemisms or gamified political punditry.”
The long-winded resignation didn’t end there. She continued her desperate defense of journalism by turning her anger toward other former darlings of the left like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg.
“The need for upstart outlets has never been more acute. The contradiction between, on one hand, the journalistic obligation to hold the powerful accountable and, on the other, the financial interests of billionaire moguls and corporate conglomerates could not be starker. The Post’s own headline last month warned: ‘Trump signals plans to use all levers of power against the media; Press freedom advocates say they fear that the second Trump administration will ramp up pressure on journalists, in keeping with the president-elect’s combative rhetoric.’ And yet The Posts’s owner quashed a presidential endorsement for Trump’s opponent, forked over $1M for Trump’s inauguration through Amazon, and publicly lauded Trump’s agenda,” Rubin ranted.
“None of us could imagine Katharine Graham sending LBJ or Nixon a $1M check. It would have been, as it is now, a fundamental betrayal of a great American newspaper. Defense of the First Amendment is incompatible with funding or cheerleading for the very person who seeks to ‘drastically undermine the institutions tasked with reporting on his coming administration.'”
“The Post’s downfall is hardly unique. ABC, Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and corporate-owned cable TV networks (which have scrambled to enlist Trump-friendly voices) are catering to powerful interests, driven by profound corporate conflicts,” she said. “Instead of guarding their independence, they join financial leaders, politicians and other public figures currying favor with Trump and his orbit. Through classic anticipatory obedience – a dangerous but all too familiar pattern – they normalize the authoritarian menace. If Trump has taken ‘attacks on the press to an entirely new level, softening the ground for an erosion of robust press freedom,’ the The Post reported, it is because he finds insufficient resistance. Instead, owners whose outlets he targets quite literally reward him.”
“In closing, I want to reiterate that I have been honored to work for over fourteen years alongside the finest writers and editors in journalism. Above all, I was blessed to work for The Post under the Graham Family ownership and Fred Hiatt’s leadership of the editorial section. My admiration for their collective integrity, dedication to craft, courage, patriotism, and decency is boundless,” she gushed. A stark change of tone from her earlier chiding. “But when new leaders sully the reputation of institutions entrusted to them and the fat of democracy is in the balance, we all must reevaluate our careers and our obligations to the world’s most essential nation. History calls us all.”
“I treasure the readers who have stuck with me over the years,” Rubin concluded. “I invite them and all those interested in defeating authoritarianism as well as writers and content creators to join this exciting new venture in defense of democracy. Forward!”
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