Good morning, dear readers. I hope and trust that this finds you well. Today is Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. It’s day two of the Winter Olympics in Italy.
1817: First U.S. gas company incorporates in Baltimore (coal gas for streetlights)
1870: First motion picture shown to a theater audience airs in Philadelphia
1917: Congress overrides Wilson’s veto, curtailing Asian immigration
1919: Hollywood film studio United Artists founded by Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D. W. Griffith
1922: Reader’s Digest magazine first published
1924: 1st Winter Olympic Games close at Chamonix, France
1953: Peter Pan, an animated film by Walt Disney, opens at the Roxy Theater in NYC
1971: Apollo 14, the third U.S. manned Moon expedition, lands near Fra Mauro. Alan Shepard and Edward Mitchell walk on the moon for four hours.
2020: U.S. Senate votes to acquit President Donald Trump 52-48 on charges of abuse of power and 53-47 on obstruction of Congress
Birthday’s today include: Hiram Maxim, American-British inventor (Maxim gun, 1st automatic machine gun), André Citroën (French Automotive pioneer), John Carradine, William S. Burroughs Red Buttons, Bernard Kalb, Claude King, Hal Blaine, Hank Aaron, Cory Wells, (Three Dog Night), Chuck Winfield, and Al Kooper, (both of Blood Sweat and Tears) J.R. Cobb (Classics IV and Atlanta Rhythm Section), and NASCAR’s Darrell Waltrip.
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Buckle up, kids. I’m sure there are some who will consider this overly harsh.
I’ve been watching the commentary on the situation at the Washington Post (WaPo) over the last week or so, with a somewhat amused shake of the head. CNN this morning is a part of the crowd of mourners:
The Washington Post laid off roughly one in three employees across the company on Wednesday. Sources say the sweeping layoffs included more than 300 employees in the newsroom and primarily affected the sports, books and podcast units. The cuts come as owner Jeff Bezos has been pushing management to return the publication to profitability. Following the announcement, executive editor Matt Murray told CNN that Bezos “remains committed to the publication” and “wants the Post to be a bigger, relevant, thriving institution.” Many Post journalists are skeptical, however, arguing that the organization cannot cut its way to growth, CNN’s Brian Stelter writes.
Haha. Without even touching the subject of Brian Stelter (a rich vein of bias himself), let’s bring up a parallel, also from CNN. Pizza Hut is closing hundreds of locations. Surely, this involves larger job losses. But guess which one CNN is lamenting? Let’s consider why Pizza Hut is shuttering these businesses.
For Pizza Hut, it was another dismal quarter, with another decline in same-store sales for its US locations, dropping 3%. The chain’s attempt to focus on value, namely a new $5 pizza, hasn’t resonated.
And why? A review summary posted on TrustPilot says, in part:
Most reviewers were unhappy with their experience overall. Customers express significant dissatisfaction with the quality and order processes. People have varying opinions regarding the product, staff, and service, indicating a lack of consensus among consumers. Many reviewers report issues such as cold food upon arrival, incorrect orders, and long delays in delivery. Consumers also mention poor quality ingredients and tasteless pizzas. Some reviewers describe negative experiences with staff, citing rudeness and unhelpful attitudes.
So essentially, people feel the product being sold isn’t worth the money or time, or aggravation, particularly when there are better choices down the street.
The fact is that the WaPo has been losing money for some time now and is now forced to cut back on expenses, including personnel, for the very same reason: customer dissatisfaction. That’s a metric that, apparently, the people at the Washington Post feel they should be immune to. The Narcissism and myopia is astounding.
I see many people beating their breasts over this “dark day in the history of journalism.” Let’s examine this. My trusty 1956 Barnhart Dictionary lists “newsman” as someone who collects and reports the news. That same dictionary lists “journalist” as someone who writes what they think. Ostensibly, the WaPo was a newspaper, not the journal they’ve turned it into. I guess that’s what happens when you change the meanings of words over time, huh?
Let’s recall that when many middle-class workers were losing their jobs, the WaPo told them “Learn to code,” echoing the Obama administration. The Washington Post has, for many years now, been an outlet dedicated to being a defender of the Democrats, Hamas, and anything else that is anti-American. Let’s recall the damage they did to their own reputation when they were attacking the Covington kids. Let’s recall how they railed against people who questioned the COVID shots.
Gee, who’d have thought that a preachy, left-leaning outlet which went out of its way to suggest indirectly that anyone who supported Trump was a NAZI, wouldn’t be popular enough to maintain itself? I hasten to point out that CNN is a ratings bottom-feeder for the same biases. I also point to the Stephen Colberts and the Jimmy Kimmels of the world on the same basis.
You know, it’s almost like people don’t feel inclined to pay for left-wing propaganda anymore. I’m never happy about someone losing their job, but it must be said in all fairness that there is nobody to blame for that loss but the Staff of the Washington Post. It would appear that Karma just ran over their dogma.
The lesson here is that a newspaper’s job is to report the news. Ditto broadcast media. Failing that, expect repercussions.
By comparison, let’s consider the case of Nick Shirley, who became something of a household name, who demonstrated it’s possible to do the job of investigative reporting, with none of the massive resources Bezos provided the Post staff. The story Nick Shirley exposed has been there for years, but the “Reporters” at the WaPo were doing nothing with it. To do so would obviously have been counterproductive to the narrative. That should tell you something.
Nothing but their biases prevented them from investigating the childcare fraud story. Instead of reporting the news, they became a hate-spewing, ultra -biased publication that nobody is buying anymore. There was never any way that the place would survive as such. If there’s anything that is surprising about this, it’s that anyone is surprised.
And by the way, Nick Shirley also embarrassed the Star Tribune up in Minneapolis, who richly deserves the same fate as the WaPo, and for the same reason.
The news industry is sick. The infection is leftist bias. The axiomatic “Get Woke, Go Broke” would seem to fit perfectly in this situation. Perhaps other outlets should take the demise of the once-venerated Washington Post to heart and eliminate from their ranks the kind of leftist propagandists that so effectively killed off the Post. Find people who are actually willing to fill the original role of NEWS people.
Thought for the Day: Comfort is no test of truth. Truth is often far from being comfortable. —Swami Vivekananda
Take care of yourselves today. Come back tomorrow, and bring a friend.
Finding someone who will tell you the truth is getting harder by the day.
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