Why I Canceled My Subscription to The Washington Post

On Friday I canceled my subscription to The Washington Post. Since then, as each WaPo newsletter has arrived in my inbox, I have unsubscribed as well. And here’s why.

I have been hard on the news and commentary media this year. And that includes The WaPo, The NY Times, The Guardian, and Aunt Minnie’s newsletter. ‘Balanced’ news coverage is impossible when one political party is acting in bad faith. The average of (“Main Stream” + “Way Off the Deep End Lies”)/2 does not equal “Acceptable.” And nobody has figured out how to deal with the asymmetric politics brought to us by the Republican Party.

Yet just a few weeks ago, on August 7, I wrote an entire email explaining that I did not recommend dropping subscriptions to the mainstream press. I wrote:

I do not intend to cancel my subscription to The NYTimes (or WaPo, or The Guardian, or etc.) any time soon. Nor would I recommend that choice unless you are confident of your usage case. Shucks, there are still too many good, thoughtful, and articulate writers at our major newspapers. I would hate to miss <insert your favorite writer here>Jamelle Bouie</insert> by biting off my nose to spite my face.

So what has changed?