Carnage at The Washington Post

Goodbye, Old Sport

This is not a political newsletter. But this isn’t a wine-related post. I hope you will bear with me as I reflect on this sad day in the history of The Washington Post, my hometown newspaper, which has been so important in my wine-writing career.

What’s black and white and dead all over? The Washington Post — Steven Colbert.

I’ve spent today trying to process and learn the extent of the carnage at The Washington Post. I’ll spare you the details, which are being reported elsewhere. The leadership installed by owner Jeff Bezos on Wednesday laid off more than 300 staff and reporters, eliminating the Sports section, decimating local coverage in the Metro section, and laying off reporters and editors covering Ukraine, the Middle East and India. As my daughter said, “Who needs coverage of India? It’s not like many people live there.”

Forty years ago, I met Katharine Graham in Beijing, when she wanted to meet with a few American students there. This was 12 years after Nixon’s resignation, 10 after “All the President’s Men.” Sitting in a cramped, squalid dorm room at Beijing University while this giant of American journalism asked us serious questions about our experiences there and our views of Chinese politics and society was freaking amazing. Other than my total awe, my main memory is how the other Posties in the room, sitting uncomfortably on the edges of beds or desks, scribbled furiously to record our every word. Or maybe they just scribbled. They were clearly in awe and terror in her presence.

I hadn’t yet heard the expression “I feel seen,” but looking back, that was the first time I felt seen by someone really important. After all, she had helped topple a corrupt president and stood tall for freedom of the press. She wore the First Amendment as perfume. And she wanted to know what I was thinking.

Katharine Graham in a 1975 photo from her Wikipedia page. She looked pretty much the same in 1986.

My writing career started about 9 years later with a few articles in the Food section of The Post, then later I became a weekly contributor for 16+ years as the wine columnist. I also contributed a few pieces to the Style, Home, Books and Weekend sections. Writing for my hometown paper was the honor of a lifetime.

Today so many of the people who carried Mrs. Graham’s legacy are out of their jobs. The venerable paper she helmed, which gave a lot of people hope 9 years ago by putting the catchphrase “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” has all but gone dark.

As a freelancer, I never met many of the Posties whose bylines I followed regularly. In 16 years, I visited the Post’s offices only a handful of times. But my crowd at the Food section was not spared today’s layoffs. From social media posts, I learned that Olga Massov, deputy recipes editor who also edited my column for the last several years, was let go. So was Aaron Hutcherson, who wrote features, developed recipes and dished out cooking advice on the Food section’s weekly online chats.

Many of those let go today will be snapped up by the few remaining mainstream media outlets. Others will join the renegade media on Substack or elsewhere, or create their own newsletters and outlets. Some will pivot out of journalism. After this heartbreaking setback, most will be fine, because they are talented and innovative people. When you show up to work every morning not knowing what your day is going to be like, you learn to adapt.

The country, however, is losing an institution that for decades has embodied freedom of the press and the First Amendment. And we’re at risk of losing the First Amendment itself.