Froomkin out at Washington Post

Source: Politico

In a move sure to ignite the left-wing blogosphere, washingtonpost.com columnist Dan Froomkin (author of the "White House Watch" blog) has been let go by the news organization, POLITICO hears. In so many words, Froomkin was told that his blog had essentially run its course.

Froomkin's work for the Post has, at times, been amongst the most popular, but he has also ruffled some feathers, including former Post ombudsman Deb Howell, who used a column to field complaints over the labeling of Froomkin's "highly opinionated and liberal" "White House Briefing" column, which was subsequently changed to "White House Watch."

Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0609/Froomkin_out_at_Washington_Post.html

??????????????????

DAMN DAMN DAMN.

Gotta get over to WP and express myself about this.

So George Will, Charles Krauthammer and Michael Gerson can stay and churn out their cookie-cutter dispatches, indistinguishable from each other except for the order of their RNC talking points. But Froomkin? Well, he's highly opinionated (isn't that what you're supposed to have in an opinion page columnist?) and liberal. So it's clear that in this recession, somebody's got to go.

But let's all sit back and wait for the inevitable whining from the Post about how nobody wants to read their lousy newspaper anymore.

But let's all sit back and wait for the inevitable whining from the Post about how nobody wants to read their lousy newspaper anymore.

Whittle and whittle away at your content until you become a rag targeted at a small elite demographic, and then wonder why the masses find you irrelevant.

I mean, if you hear one chick talk, you've heard them all.

But let's face it: Aging conservative white men, you never know what they're going to say! And they never get a chance to have their opinions heard anywhere at any time. It's really a public service the Post Op-Ed page is providing.

where it will be? When a door slams shut, there's a window somewhere..flying open!

taken a pay cut. This is not good...

http://news.slashdot.org/story/09/06/17/1938241/Youre-Probably-Not-Going-To-Be-a-Pro-Blogger
http://blog.seliger.com/2009/06/17/youre-not-going-to-be-a-pro/

Very few blogs cover server costs and salary. There is just not enough advertising money, argue some, to allow for very many professional bloggers.

However, the Washington Post also has its own axe to grind, attempting to complete the transition from once-reputable news source to right-wing propaganda organ. Froomkin is in the way of that.

Freepers cheer.

Does anyone really read Politico for truth? Why?

you see, it costs a lot to pay George Will to lie about global warming.

likewise, Broder's charge for updating his weekly column, which involves changing the names politicians to excoriate them to give up all their good ideas and *be more bipartisan*, the cost to do that is pretty hefty.

:eyes:

WAPO is a right wing rag, much like the Washington Times. It needs balance. It's making a mistake. Oh, well.

Another voice squelched.

:thumbsup:

...it rivals the Moonie Times in it's Republicon Homelander spin...

the back few pages of the first section ... the horror of the right-wing blather that they pass as "Editorials." :puke:

You can feel the pushback from the Reich Wing. They are monolithic in their talking points and relentless.

By the way, Deb Howell was a buffoon.

Oh I occasionally end up there via a link from elsewhere - or even from White House Watch - but Dan's blog is the only direct portal to the rag I have maintained.

I sure hope some enlightened vehicle like, say, Salon, will pick up Froomkin post haste. For my taste, his voice is in the upper echelons when it comes to combing the day's news like almost no one else, providing those vital links, and doing it with an attitude but without ideology, offensiveness, or name-calling (well, mostly - sometimes you can't help yourself!).

Dan: please look at this as a promotion, or getting out of jail free or something. No early retirement!

unwashed masses. :(

phuk ewe, WaPo.

Froomkin gave us some great writing during the dark years.

A shame that WaPo let him go. Wherever he goes, I'll be reading him.

Answer: NO.

:banghead: :eyes:

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

Glenn Greenwald
Thursday June 18, 2009 15:19 EDT
The Washington Post fires its best columnist. Why?

(updated below - Update II - Update III)

One of the rarest commodities in the establishment media is someone
who was a vehement critic of George Bush and who now, applying their
principles consistently, has become a regular critic of Barack Obama
-- i.e., 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
Gavin 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
3 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.

FUCK POLITICO!