The Washington Post fires its best columnist. Why? (Glen Greenwald has the story)

[AlexanderProgressive]

Glen Greenwald reports that Dan Froomkin has been fired:

One of the rarest commodities in the establishment media is someone who was a vehement critic of George Bush who, applying their principles consistently, has become a regular critic of Barack Obama -- someone who criticizes Obama from what is perceived as "the Left" rather than for being a Terrorist-Loving Socialist Muslim. It just got a lot rarer, as The Washington Post -- at least according to Politico's Patrick Gavin-- just fired WashingtonPost.com columnist, long-time Bush critic and Obama watchdog (i.e., a real journalist) Dan Froomkin.

What makes this firing so bizarre and worthy of inquiry is that, as Calderone notes, Froomkin was easily one of the most linked-to and cited Post columnists. At a time when newspapers are relying more and more on online traffic, the Post just fired the person who, in 2007, wrote 2 out of the top 10 most-trafficked columns. In publishing that data, Media Bistro used this headline: "The Post's Most Popular Opinions (Read: Froomkin)." Isn't that an odd person to choose to get rid of?

Following the bottomless path of self-pity of the standard right-wing male -- as epitomized by Pete Hoekstra's comparison of House Republicans to Iranian protesters and yet another column by Pat Buchanan decrying the systematic victimization of the white male in America -- Charles Krauthammer last night said that Obama critics on Fox News are "a lot like Caracas where all the media, except one, are state run." But right-wing polemicists like Krauthammer are all over the media.

In addition to his Rupert Murdoch perch at Fox, Krauthammer remains as a regular columnist at the Post, alongside fellow right-wing Obama haters such as Bill Kristol, George Will, Jim Hoagland, and Robert Kagan -- as well as a whole bevy of typical, banal establishment spokespeople who are highly supportive of whoever is in power (David Ignatius, Fred Hiatt, Ruth Marcus, David Broder, Richard Cohen, Howie Kurtz, etc. etc.). And that's to say nothing of the regular Op-Ed appearances by typical Krauthammer-mimicking neoconservative voices such as John Bolton, Joe Lieberman, and Douglas Feith -- and the Post Editorial Page itself. "Caracus" indeed.

Read whole story
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/06/18/froomkin/index.html

[Luminous Animal]

1. Not good. :(

[badgerpup]

23. Saw this on Salon.com

Judging from the comments, WaPo's readership is going to PLUMMET faster than the economy.

Dan Froomkin is just about the only sane, balanced, THINKING writer they've got...excuse me...had.:banghead:

Which might explain why they've decided to get rid of him...:silly::dunce:

:kick:

[blogslut]

2. I don't trust the Politico

If Froomkin was let go, that would be terrible. Just the same, the Politico is no better than Fox News when it comes to truth and accuracy.

Here's Froomkin's posting from today:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/quick-takes-86.html

No mention of his being terminated.

[blogslut]

15. I just got off the phone with Kris Coratti @ WaPo

She said that Froomkin's column is being phased out and at this time, there's no certainty as to when Mr. Froomkin will stop posting his web column. In other words, there is still ample chance to let the WaPo know that we want Mr. Froomkin to stay.

Oh and also, the Politico is full of shit

Here's Ms. Coratti's phone number:

1-703-469-2763

She is WaPo Media Communications director.

Incidentally, I first called the WaPo city desk (202-334-7300). Then I was transferred to the national desk. They transferred me to the web desk. The web desk transferred my to the Human Services Department and oh boy, did I have an interesting convo with the lady here. She's the one who gave me Kris Coratti's number - which I advise you all to call.

:)

[stevedeshazer]

22. Good work.

Just wanted you to know that someone noticed.

[blogslut]

27. Thanks!

:hi:

[Cha]

26. Thanks for your work,

blogslut!

[blogslut]

28. :)

I appreciate that.

[AlexanderProgressive]

3. I'm not visiting the Washington Post website if a good explanation is not given

Calderone of Politico reports that Charles Krauthammer once called Froomkin's analysis "stupid."
Here's the link of Krauthammer's comments:

"And occasionally stupid. Dan Froomkin, writing for washingtonpost.com and echoing a common meme among my critics, asserted that "the ticking time bomb scenario only exists in two places: On TV and in the dark fantasies of power-crazed and morally deficient authoritarians."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/14/AR2009051403603.html

[grasswire]

4. nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I can hardly believe it.

[Romulox]

5. I think the WaPo saw an opportunity to become the internet paper of record after the NYT Select

debacle.

There has been a concerted shift of the paper to the "center/right" perspective in this same time frame, and most of the big named syndicated columnists on WP's opinion page are either conservatives or "third way" apologists for the status quo.

The WaPo's outsized ambitions seem unrealistic now. Can anyone more than 20 miles outside of DC imagine getting the paper delivered to their homes? The very idea is laughable. Not only is the WaPo returning to be an establishment organ of primarily regional interest. I frankly can't be bothered to visit their website any longer.

[blm]

6. Why do I think it's more than that? Because WaPost is known as SpookCentral and a HUGE story

looks like it may need some suppressing from the same old gang who suppressed stories like this for DECADES.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=273x157739


Swiss police threatened to arrest an aide to Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for espionage last month if he entered the country in pursuit of a CIA connection to Pakistan's secret nuclear bomb smuggling.

Douglas Franz, a former newsman who recently became a top investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which Kerry chairs, is an expert on Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, suspected of aiding Iran, North Korea and Libya in their secret nuclear bomb programs.

...

Last month Franz told Swiss authorities he wanted to question Urs Tinner, a Swiss citizen suspected of supplying Khan's network with "the technical knowledge and equipment that was used to make gas centrifuges for uranium enrichment," The Associated Press reported May 25.


In his book, Franz, a distinguished former New York Times reporter and managing editor of the Los Angeles Times, reported that Tinner had been recruited as a CIA informant, perhaps as early as 2000.
>>>>>>

Franz also wrote a book about BCCI - what he COULD write, anyway, as we all know the many outstanding MATTERS, including AQ Khan, were buried in the 90s and never allowed further scrutiny. Apparently, Kerry is using his power to correct some of that - no wonder they didn't want him with the power of the WH.

Anyway, WaPost is assuring that the left has no significant voice from their end when this story breaks wider....IF it breaks wider.

[AlexanderProgressive]

7. It looks like a dispute with Charles Krauthammer over torture led to his firing, at least in part

Greenwald:

Notably, Froomkin just recently had a somewhat acrimonious exchange with the oh-so-oppressed Krauthammer over torture, after Froomkin criticized Krauthammer's explicit endorsement of torture and Krauthammer responded by calling Froomkin's criticisms "stupid." And now Froomkin is fired by the Post while the persecuted Krauthammer -- comparing himself to endangered journalists in Venezuela -- remains at the Post, along with countless others there who think and write just like he does: i.e., standard neoconservative pablum. Froomkin was previously criticized for being "highly opinionated and liberal" by Post ombusdman Deborah Howell (even as she refused to criticize blatant right-wing journalists).

[blm]

8. To some degree...but firing Froomkin now knowing this huge story is out there is typical

behavior for them and the other news giants.


There was a story up yesterday in LBN about US officials linked to AQ Khan. No doubt some of that info came from Kerry's investigator re-opening and furthering this investigation.

[cagesoulman]

17. AQ Khan story? Link?

This would make them fire the guy.

[blm]

18. You have to know the WaPost - it's rep at other papers was SpookCentral - CIA mouthpiece

but, unfortunately, mostly accessible for the covert operations run by GHWBush and his thugs.

Here's one of the threads on AQ Khan story.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5876524

[cagesoulman]

24. Thanks

:toast:

[DemReadingDU]

10. They couldn't have kept Froomkin and let go Krauthammer?

:crazy:

[noise]

25. Being against torture is obviously a fringe liberal view

The pro-torture advocates are pathetic. Only an idiot would equate the Bush/Cheney torture program with patriotism.

[DebbieCDC]

9. The Post has become nothing more than another right wing rag

It's glory days are long gone

Fuck them. Nobody reads newspapers anymore.

Froomkin, who I really like and respect, will land somewhere that will appreciate his talents and insights.

The Post is bird cage liner material. That's all it's good for now.

[lunatica]

11. It's the rush to lowest possible common denominator

How can you dumb down Americans when someone keeps treating them like they have smarts? Please people! Get real!

[Canuckistanian]

12. I found it amazing that Froomkin lasted through the Bush years...

...but gets fired during Obama's administration.

I'd like to hear exactly WHAT he got fired for. It certainly wasn't because no one read him.

[Cherchez la Femme]

38. My thoughts exactly

very unsettling

[glitch]

13. One of my must-read guys. I hope he lands in a more honorable place than the WAPO

Like Harpers.

[Zodiak]

14. Should have been titled "Washington Post embraces cable TV model...fires last liberal"

Because face it.....our political discourse is tightly-controlled by the gatekeepers in the establishment media to be between the right wing and the center-right. Liberal thought is simply not to be included. This, of course, ensures a slow but inexorable trudge to a corporate, proto-fascist state in the absence of any widely-available alternative media.

My guess is that the Washington Post just made themselves irrelevant in the same way the WSJ has. The newspapers are dying, and I am beginning to think rightfully so.

Why? Well, people who read the news tend to read the news because they do not like the cable-tv model of political discourse. There are a lot of left-leaning people included in that group.

Papers should be trying to increase their audience, not narrowing their ideological dynamic range.

Dumb-asses.

Oh yeah....that ombudsman mentioned..Howard...isn't she the one who got into a flap with bloggers a couple of years ago by removing posts on their webpage critical of their neo-con slant?

[Captain Hilts]

16. I love Froomkin. The WP has been stocking up on conservative columnists the past few years. nt

[Fumesucker]

19. Update from Greenwald:

UPDATE: I just confirmed with Froomkin that Gavin's report is true, and hope to have some comment from him once he decides what he wants to say.

[Fumesucker]

21. Froomkin's statement, also from Greenwald:

UPDATE III: Here is Froomkin's statement:

I’m terribly disappointed. I was told that it had been determined that my White House Watch blog wasn’t "working" anymore. But from what I could tell, it was still working very well. I also thought White House Watch was a great fit with The Washington Post brand, and what its readers reasonably expect from the Post online.

As I’ve written elsewhere, I think that the future success of our business depends on journalists enthusiastically pursuing accountability and calling it like they see it. That’s what I tried to do every day. Now I guess I'll have to try to do it someplace else.

[glitch]

36. I hope he can move from disappointment to flattered as quickly as possible.

Being fired by WAPO should be seen as a compliment to both his integrity and his skill as a journalist.

[marmar]

20. The Post is trying to move to the right of the Washington Times....

n/t

[Senator]

29. K&R -- And call the # in post 15.

[autorank]

30. Fromkin is great. The Post distinguishes itself as simply silly once again

It's the paper for my neck of the woods. After they published the details for the Clinton-Lewinsky
encounters, every detail, I refused to pay for it ever again. I get the decent parts online. Fromkin
was terrific. He was also fun to read.

What a predictable move from a paper that has blood on its hands for Iraq. Shame on you Wash Post but
you have none.

[democracy1st]

31. just trying to find a lame excuse to get rid of liberals

[BlooInBloo]

32. (facepalm) How fucked up can the media possibly get?

Don't answer that.

[A1Sauce]

33. Holy Cow

Not good, not good at all

[snot]

34. If there were any real Dems left in Washington

we'd have seen media reform long ago.

[sonias]

35. I love Dan Froomkin

And this has me fuming. I hope he finds another good site to write for. We need him covering the White House!

:cry:



Sonia

[happydreams]

37. This is a good indicator that the Bush fascists, who have gotten others

fired from the WP are still in the drivers seat. They are destroying this civilization and must be brought to justice.

In the 1980's Poppy tried to muscle Ben Bradlee, chief editor famous for his role in Watergate, to fire Mary McGrory who tried to tell the truth about Bushista power. This is in Robert Parry's book
"Fooling America"



...... .....
There are no major news media in the US that are not controlled by the CIA.

The above quote is from ex CIA Director William Colby who died in a mysterious boating accident after working to expose The Franklin Coverup.