I do have a Washington Post subscription and I’m keeping it for now, though I suspect it’s just a matter of time. I’ve got a fair number of columnists both opinion and journalism side, that I rather like and I figure when the time comes I should be able to get most of them via RSS feeds and the like. I’d even be willing to pay specifically to keep access for them.
However, much like my rooting for the Orioles, they’re ultimately a home town team where I don’t root that hard because I don’t trust the management. This statement was brought about because the Post fired Dan Froomkin of their White House Watch blog. I was an occasional reader, typically when he was linked to or I was scanning the Post home page, but I did like what I read. From the Politico report by Michael Calderone, this apparently wasn’t an amicable parting and it happened even though the blog was widely read. Froomkin had taken some flack for his criticism of torture and his pointing out that Charles Krauthammer’s defense of it was based on 24 style scenarios. Krauthammer’s defense was that torture once allowed the Israelis to find the location of a soldier (who subsequently died in the rescue attempt). Strangely, Krauthammer still has a job.
In closing, here’s Froomkin’s statement on the matter:
"I was told that it had been determined that my White House Watch blog wasn’t 'working' anymore," said Froomkin. "Personally, I thought it was still working very well, and based on reader feedback, a lot of readers thought so, too. I also felt White House Watch was a great fit with The Washington Post brand, and what its readers reasonably expect from the Post online. As I’ve written elsewhere, (http://www.niemanlab.org/category/themes/danfroomkin) I think that the future success of our business depends on journalists enthusiastically pursuing accountability and calling it like they see it. That’s what I tried to do every day. Now I guess I'll have to try to do it someplace else."
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