I feel it's my duty as the Last Print Subscriber to let people know this. The staff critics are running in the Book Review, not the weekday paper, which is a big change, and cuts down on the number of reviews. And features like the death of mass market paperbacks also run in the book review.
As I’ve been saying, by the end of the year, you can expect that ChatGPT will be selling a product that lets people generate child sexual abuse material on demand. They will then say “oops” about it violating their TOS, and repeat until everyone caves. Because their leadership is largely ex-Meta.
Goldman: "Will the survivors and victims who are here please stand up one more time. By show of hands, how many of you or your loved ones actually have met with the DOJ? None ... How many of you were ignored by the DOJ? All of them." (Bondi responds by smearing Goldman.)
photo of Pam Bondi testifying in the foreground as a group of 7 women and 1 men raise their hands
Likely-historic photo by NBC News of all the Epstein victims asked to raise their hands if they've not yet been asked to meet with the DOJ as Bondi testifies in foreground
RIP, James Van Der Beek. And fuck cancer.
A dresser inside a museum in New York City has been discovered as a secret stop on the Underground Railroad — the first of its kind discovered in Manhattan in over 100 years
Traister, 2017: "We’re not only learning about individual trespasses but for the first time getting a view of the matrix in which we’ve all been living: We see that the men who have had the power to abuse women’s bodies and psyches throughout their careers are in many cases also the ones in charge."
Y'all, the fabulous @fuggirls.bsky.social have created the best post about the #BenitoBowl. Treat ya'self! www.gofugyourself.com/the-super-bo...
ICE has now spent over half a BILLION dollars just on purchasing warehouses around the country to convert into detention camps.
If these mega-camps are utilized to the full capacity ICE intends, they'll be the largest prisons in the country, with little real oversight. www.ajc.com/politics/202...
"TikTok’s Terms of Service now explicitly include tracking of location and citizenship status (among other identity markers, such as sex)." newrepublic.com/article/2059...
The G.O.P. Senator Who Can’t Stop Thinking About the Boy ICE Detained Katie Britt is uniquely positioned to reason with the Trump administration — when she chooses to speak up.
over the next 3 years, be ready for seeing a lot of coverage of Republican lawmakers, business leaders, university leaders who did absolutely nothing to stall Trump (on the contrary) — about how *actually* they were wringing their hands all along. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...
If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff.
Democracy dies in oligarchy.
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
Spanberger is a moderate Democrat who used to work for the C.I.-fucking-A. It should put the actions of Schumer and Jeffries into perspective for everyone. Are they Republicans? Because they sure act like it.
They need to get the fuck out.
People often disparage the press — and we often get it wrong — but almost everything you know about this administration is not because pundits go on tv or social media and pontificate but because of relentless reporting from real journalists at institutions that give them resources to do so.
Our founders, though deeply flawed, understood that democracy requires an informed citizenry and a government accountable to it people. That’s why the press is the only profession protected by the Constitution. It’s also why autocrats and oligarchs seek to control and destroy it.
For those looking for freelance work in the wake of WaPo layoffs: I'm an editor at large overseeing Ideas & Culture at Bloomberg, including our Books coverage. Find me at skillingswo2@bloomberg.net
I was laid off from the Washington Post today, along with hundreds (!!!) of incredible colleagues. If you need a data journalist, chart designer, or wacky-idea-specialist, give me a shout!
If you are able, The Post's union has started a layoff fund for those fired by the world's fourth-richest man today. gofund.me/a310d0286
Aside what these layoffs mean to the Washington Post as an organization, the toll on the people who lost their jobs is awful. The dread and the anxiety of now having to find a job, of figuring out bills, insurance. And for those who kept their jobs, the stress of working even more to paper the gaps.
For so long Amazon has had a monopoly on selling self-published books. Good to see that @bookshop.org is ready to compete in the space! www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...
Whatever you think of the Washington Post at this moment, here's a chance to support the dedicated, hard-working journalists who were just laid off. If you have the means, your donation is most welcome. If you don't, a kind thought and maybe spreading the word to others is support enough 💙
Besides the splendid @roncharles.bsky.social and @johnwilliams.bsky.social and Becca Rothfeld, I'm thinking about former editors Nina King and Marie Arana and Jabari Asim and Michael Dirda. Book World has long had a unique and often surprising voice. What a terrible loss.
This is nonetheless more favorable terrain for Trump than for the American system. As New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan once wrote (here in The Post), “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.” Trump has for years stoked the idea that actually, having your own facts is fine. And even as his base chooses facts that he finds inconvenient in the moment, he’s still pushing toward the next phase: Everyone is entitled to the facts that Trump presents. What institutions of power will be left to disagree?
These are the last words in the last column I wrote for The Washington Post, titled "When institutions crumble, strongmen step in". www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
"Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of The Washington Post, and Will Lewis, the publisher he appointed at the end of 2023, are embarking on the latest step of their plan to kill everything that makes the paper special." www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
I’m so sorry, John.
The Post killing its Books section (one of the best around) is so fucking bleak
I also know this will not pay the bills or ease anxiety today, and I was very fortunate to leave LAT on my own with a strong buyout package, but I have found that there is incredible peace of mind that comes with no longer working for a craven billionaire, even if you loved your job.
i know that this is an unpopular take, but everyone starting their own newsletter as a revenue stream is not a sustainable model for writing and reporting or for people who love and want to pay for media.
