Washington Post Fires Froomkin

I was shocked today to hear of the firing of Dan Froomkin. He was one of the few remaining reasons that I still even read the Post.

Froomkin was one of the few left that speak truth to power. His original column, "White House Watch" ran afoul of the Bush White House due to his stringent criticism of Bush's policies on torture and warrantless wiretaping. And he has been equally hard (justifiably so) on the Obama Administration, which seems in so many depressing ways to just be a continuation of Bush.

Froomkin was the most read online columnist at the Post. The Post Ombudsman article relating the firing has about 140 comments in about 8 hours (a typical article has about half a dozen). Almost all of the commenters declare how much they appreciated Froomkin, and reflect the same shock and anger that I feel.

The question I just don't understand is: Why? Actually, I fear that I understand only too well.

I almost hope it is because he was running a porn ring from his office computer. That at least would be a reasonable cause for firing.

But the reason seems to be obvious from the corporate-speak ejaculation of the Post's PR flack:

“Editors and our research teams are constantly reviewing our online content to ensure we bring readers the most value when they are on our Web site while balancing the need to make the most of our resources. Regrettably, this means that sometimes features must be eliminated, and this time it was the blog that Dan Froomkin freelanced...”

That's about the same excuse that my ex-girlfriend gave me when she dumped me for a taller guy: "It's just not working out..."

The problem is that the Post is lurching to the Right. Since Katherine Graham died 8 years ago, her idiot son Donald has been running things. Donald Graham has none of the journalistic integrity and ethics that Katherine fostered. To him it's a business.

Actually, the Post newspaper is a money-loosing business. But the Washington Post Company owns a lot of non-newspaper businesses. Their biggest money maker is Kaplan Learning Services---the testing and scholastic materials company. Donald sees the Post newspaper as a way to promote his other businesses.

That's the horrifying part---the Post is not a newspaper anymore, but a corporate propaganda sheet.

So if the No Child Left Behind program has money for a program that would benefit Kaplan, then Donald will see to it that the paper publishes articles explaining to us joe-six-packs how great NCLB is and all about the wonderful synergistic partnership between NCLB and private companies such as Kaplan.

It's all part of the corporatocracy. Donald hires Neo-cons like Krauthammer, Kagan, Kristol, and former Bush stooges like Gerson and Kathleen Parker. Former thoughtful columnists like Richard Cohen and David Broder are now toeing the corporate line.

And true journalists like Froomkin are shown the door.