Marty Baron: Behind the Washington Post’s Demise
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What led to the massive layoffs at the Washington Post?
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All right. Hey, everybody. We got a great show coming for you with Marty Baron. And I was kind of annoyed that he waited till we stopped recording to make fun of me for the fact that he sees my clips on social media. And I look like I just got out of bed. I'm just like, you know what? Okay. All right. We're in a different world, right? We're not buttoned up Woodward and Bernstein material. Sometimes I'm hung over in podcasting. Let a man live. But it was wonderful. And I think will give us a lot of insight into the corruption that has led to the crack up at the Washington Post. And I think there's a lot of important themes that are related to that, in addition to kind of the media gossip element of it. Stick around for that.
First, I do want to flag about our live shows. Texas is going to be on pre-sale for Bulwark subscribers. So become a subscriber to Bulwark Plus at thebulwark.com. Pre-sale opens up today, Thursday. Tickets will be open up to everybody on Friday. And if the Minnesota experience is anything to guide us, they're going to sell out quick. So go check those out. Reminder, we're in Dallas March 18th. and Austin, March 19th. Become a Bloor Plus subscriber to get that early access to tickets, get the best seats in the house so you can get close to me, throw spitballs at me, etc. As far as Minnesota is concerned, we added the bonus show on Wednesday, February 18th. There are a couple hundred tickets left, so go check those out as well.
All the proceeds from those two shows in Minneapolis are going to go to Second Harvest Heartland. It's doing great work feeding people that... are struggling with food insecurity because of all the nonsense happening in Minneapolis. So look forward to seeing you guys on the road in Minneapolis, Dallas, or Austin. Up next, former executive editor of the Washington Post, Marty Barron.
Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Delighted to welcome to the show former executive editor of The Washington Post, author of Collision of Power, Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post. It's Marty Baron. Thanks for coming on the show, Marty. Thanks for having me. Well, I think obviously I've brought you on to talk about the war in Ukraine. No, we're going to talk about Jeff Bezos doing self-sabotage to his own newspaper for some reason. You put out a statement yesterday that was blistering about the layoffs and what is underneath them. And so I was excited to have you on to chat about that. Why don't you just give us your kind of top line thoughts and I'll kind of go into it.
This is a paper with a deep heritage. It's about 150 years old. They're coming up on their 150th anniversary. It's been known for doing the most ambitious work for holding power to account, particularly government, the politicians at the highest possible levels. And now it will be a news organization that's severely diminished. I mean, they've gone through a round of cuts. But now the news organization will have fewer people than it had when Bezos actually acquired the Post in 2013. We had expanded tremendously over the years.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What led to the massive layoffs at the Washington Post?
0:00–6:12
2
How has Jeff Bezos influenced the direction of the Washington Post?
6:12–11:59
3
What was the impact of the 'Democracy Dies in Darkness' motto?
11:59–17:30
4
How did Bezos's ownership change the Washington Post's strategy?
17:30–24:42
5
What are the implications of government contracts on media independence?
24:42–31:26
6
How does the current leadership's strategy differ from past successes?
31:26–38:56
7
What are the potential paths forward for the Washington Post?
38:56–43:42
8
What is Marty Baron's advice for the future of the Washington Post?
43:42–47:54
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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