Through a Gimlet Eye: Studying the Washington Post Kremlinologist-Style

pajamas media ^ | 7/12/10 | Ed Driscoll

[Nachum]

During the Cold War, back when Russian spies typically looked far more like Boris than Natasha, not to mention Anna Chapman, the phrase “Kremlinologist” came into vogue to describe those men who could study photos and snippets of information emerging from behind the Iron Curtain and attempt to determine the current health of the Soviet Union, and who was running the show.

So let’s employ a little Kremlinology to try and ascertain the health of the Washington Post. Or even a little Nixonology — a modern-day equivalent of Woodward and Bernstein (or at least how they were presented to the public in the form of Redford and Hoffman) would have lots of fun tying together all of the strange stories that have circulated recently from the former home of Ben Bradlee and Katharine Graham:

* Newsweek’s Howard Fineman lamenting the legacy media’s industry-wide pro-Democratic presidential candidate group-think immediately after election year 2004, and wondering if it’s caused the industry to lose credibility.

* The Washington Post’s then ombudswoman, Deborah Howell, lamenting her paper’s office-wide pro-Democratic presidential candidate group-think immediately after election year 2008, and wondering if it’s caused the paper to lose credibility.

[Nachum]

Well heck, who do you think runs the paper now?

[La Lydia]

My absolutely favorite comment:

What I find puzzling about the oddly-named mainstream media’s rapid slide into irrelevance is the seeming absence of any business types at the formerly elite organs like the WaPo. Let’s think of the detergent business for a moment. Can you imagine a decision to write off roughly 80 percent of the market for soap powder and tailor your product for what remains? Try as I may, I cannot think of any reason why a sanely run organization would make such a decision or even allow internal inertia to bring it to such certain ruin unless nepotism is a controlling factor.