Update: Froomkin confirms, comments on dismissal
The Washington Post Company has dismissed veteran online columnist Dan Froomkin, according to a company spokesperson.
"I think the easiest way to put it is that our editors and research teams are constantly reviewing our columns, blogs and other content to make sure we're giving readers the most value when they are on our site while balancing the need to make the most of our resources," Washington Post Media Communications Director Kris Coratti said in a statement to Politico. "Unfortunately, this means that sometimes features must be eliminated, and this time it was the blog that Dan Froomkin freelanced for washingtonpost.com."
Author of "The White House Watch" blog, Politico's Mike Calderone said that Froomkin had been let go. "In so many words," he writes, "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,'" he adds.
Froomkin's final column is available here.
Salon blogger stunned
Glenn Greenwald, a popular columnist and scholar at Salon, questioned the Post's intelligence in dismissing one of their most popular online writers.
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," Greenwald writes. "It just got a lot rarer, as The Washington Post -- at least according to Politico's Michael Calderone -- 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?
Greenwald praised Froomkin as one of the few liberal pundits who criticize Obama from the left under principles they also drew on when they criticized former President George W. Bush.
"What one finds virtually nowhere in the establishment press are those who criticize Obama not in order to advance their tawdry right-wing agenda but because the principles that led them to criticize Bush compel similar criticism of Obama. Rachel Maddow is one of the few prominent media figures who will interview and criticize Democratic politicians "from the Left".... In general, however, those who opine from the Maddow/Froomkin perspective are a very endangered species."
Froomkin himself confirmed his own dismissal in an update at the Salon link. Writes Froomkin:
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.
Wonkette, a popular satire blog, was equally scathing in critiquing Froomkin's forced exit.
Think about this one example, of many: wretched columnist Richard Cohen, whom the Post passes off as one of its tenured liberal critics, was embarrassingly wrong about every possible aspect of the Iraq War — as was the entire Liberal editorial board — and when asked in 2006 to reflect on his hawkishness during the first Bush term, he wrote, “In a post-Sept. 11 world, I thought the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic.” This pathetic, grumpy person who was sneeringly wrong about very important War issues and then explained it all away, years later, with that sociopathic “quip” about human life, is still a weekly columnist at this newspaper, where the other op-ed “stars” include Charles Krauthammer — who called Froomkin “stupid” in a printed column — Bill Kristol, David Broder, Fred Hiatt, Jackson Diehl, George Will, David Ignatius, and Michael Gerson.
- John Byrne and Mike Sheehan
Tags: bloggers, blogging, froomkin, liberals, media, newspapers, wapo, washington post
While Froomkin may not be all that "liberal", by comparison to the neo-cons running the shop at WaPo he's positively flaming and totally out of sync with the blatantly conservative bias exhibited daily by the publication and all its related products.
For some time, the Washington Post is vying with the Wall Street Journal to become the spokes-medium for the plutocrats.
With Froomkin gone, there will be no more reason to read the Washington Post than the Washington Times.
This was one of my favorite columns. Everyday I read it and found out what's really going on in the Obama White House. This is a major disappointment to me. It is probably the only reason why I ever read the Washington Post
Greenwald needs to take a good look at reality. I've seen more liberals criticize Obama for going against liberal principles (like equal rights and gun responsibility) than conservatives who criticized W for going against conservative "principles". Froomkin is only an endangered species in conservative-bias businesses.
Do they really wonder why they are fading away into obsoleteness?
Are there enough right-wing extremists in the country to support all the war mongering rags published and how many of them know how to read?
Who still reads this paper without a sneer of disbelief? Papers that once stood, perhaps not for what we really were, but what we aspired to be that are now grovelling at the level of the Limbaugh’s and O’Reilly’s
Were I a praying person I would thank the Lord every night for the blogs that are like candles in a darkening night.
Print media continues to shoot itself in the recycled foot. Known now only for inaccurate and unreliable information, self-censoring practices and molly-coddling power instead of speaking or writing truth to it, newpapers seem to want to emulate the scourge of all media...Rupert Murdock in their panic mode of corporate pandering.
Is this the paper owned by that Moonie-fuck? I have been known to make origami figures from their paper-that depicts the use of the middle finger.
Good, now they'll be more room for Jackson Diehl to write his always hilarious Venezuela hit job pieces- straight from Langley to the printing press.
This is truly a sad day for the WAPO. Froomkin will go on to bigger and better things, but WAPO will not have a spokesman that speaks "Truth To Power." The majority that remains at the once great WAPO are the right wing brown shirts that will just write rubber stamp sycophant articles to please the corrupt and incompetent masters on Wall Street, the corrupt and incompetent politicians, and the right wing extremists of the USA. Gawd!, How low can they go?
It becomes more and more clear that WaPo has turned into a conservative right of center news paper. The editor in chief and all the other co-editors do not want to be attacked or looked down upon by the people in charge in Washington, the political and corporate mediocrity. They want to be welcomed on the party circuit and seen as one of them. There were always a few journalist who stood out (Froomkin one of them) who believed it to be more important to do your job and criticize anyone who needs to be criticized no matter how high up and what party they are in. But that was precisely the problem for the WaPo bosses, they see themselves still as backroom deal makers. Instead of firing the exorbitant large group of neocon's and right wingers on their staff (starting with Broder, George Will, and all their right wing guest writer-friends) they see themselves more and more as a FOX news type of newspaper, meaning you just show and tell one side of a story. They have nothing in common with the Wallstreet Journal as was suggested, they have better writers.
WaPo is part of the problem in Washington, they only seemingly cared for the American people. They love the HAVE's.
Just proves that the Republican and Democratic party are one in the same thing; it's our two party dictatorship! Looks like there going to admit to the affair before long.
Print media and television have but one god. The advertiser. If I had to make a wager, I'd put my money on a major advertiser complaining about Froomkin.
I just posted a story of news suppression on my blog a few day ago.
http://juansrants.blogspot.com/2009/06/how-to-censor-news.html
Froomkin was a truth teller-and we all know where that gets you in the bought and paid for (and still) neocon owned "mainstream" media. WaPo you suck, may you go the way of the dinosaur like the rest of your kind who cheer lead this nation into an illegal war. (now bankrupting us)
I have no idea who this froomkin guy is, and although he looks like a douche bag, if by leaving, he helps that worthless, useless, POS rag swoosh down the final drain hole to newspaper heaven, then he's done the world a service..
Now if he could host a popular blog for the NYT and then leave it also..
With the firing of Froomkin the WaPo has now demonstrated that they are as stupid and out of touch as I feared they had become. Dan was the last bastion of old WaPo editorial philosophy that brought down Nixon. Everybody loses here.
Finally there are no reasons at all to read the Post.
What a bunch of idiots. I hope he starts another Raw Story, Daily Kos, or Huff Post...
NOOOOOooooo, not Froomkin, one of the best and most sane writers on WashPo.com! Oh, Dan, I am so sorry! You were such a great voice scrutinizing political figures and media types (both of whom needed that scrutiny). Meanwhile, his former employer keeps on some of those idiots who went along with selling the American people on the Iraq (Based On Lies) War! Good think I no longer subscribe to the online WashPo. If Dan lets us know where he is going, I am sure we will all follow him to his new site or newspaper. Keep blogging, Dan!
I believe the public should support progressive media and if the progressive media gets large enough others will learn from it and change their policies. I do not care if Wapo goes out of business something else will take its place. Of course no one will cancel their subscriptions and quit their cable subscriber. I know that because the left has been complaining for years now to know effect.
I remember when Robert Sheer got fired from the L. A. Times and many people complained, but nothing happened. I know people who have takes the Nation cruise when Sheer was one of the pundits. When he was asked what panel discussion he wanted to be on, he said it did not matter because he felt comfortable discussing any topic. When very qualified people get fired at the L. A. Times is when I give up caring about the newspaper.
They do it ALL the time. That's why we as died in the wool liberals who desperately want our government's feet held to the fire and ensure that they conduct business ethically and as they said they would need independent sources like Salon or Democracy Now, Huffington Post, Raw Story, etc in which to get the real story. Glen Greenwald is my 100% favorite and it sounds like Froomkin was in that category. Admittedly I did not read him that much as I do not read the Washington Post that frequently. The Boston Globe, New York Times are my newspapers of choice. Still they are corporate entities times two and that is why we desperately need INDEPENDENT liberal media scrupulous journalism. It is a MUST. I hope Froomkin is picked up by those mentioned above or even PBS.
It is OBVIOUS ABC, CNN, NBC, cannot do the job. Fox Noise is an abomination and no news at all. What a joke THAT one is but it serves a purpose if nothing else it can be a battering ram for Olbermann and Maddow who are one of the few at the VERY TOP of their game. Maddow is almost in a cerebrally brilliant class by herself. MSNBC struck GOLD when they got her. BRILLIANT wonderful woman!
The WaPo is rapidly becoming a sick dino. The only time I have read it in the last five years was this article about a competent blogger being released.
When the liberal media decides you're too liberal, that's a sign. Too loony left even the ultraliberals like Richard Cohen, Sally Quinn and Eugene Robinson and the rest who pack that newsroom.
Very sad news.
Why is the Washington Post trying so hard to become the Washington Past?
Washington Post - R.I.P
So the American people deliver a resounding rejection of the clown circus of the last 8 years and the reaction of Democratic politicians act even more afraid of the increasingly shrinking little group of boneheaded idiot conservatives. Im not buying that stupid newspaper anymore.
The latest generation of ownership/management at the Post is lunatic-Likud Katharine Weymouth--any surprise wrong about everything Krauthammer, Cohen, Broder, Hyatt, et al remain the stars of the show?
Bye, Bye WAPO
If they had just retired that republican butt kissing dinosaur David Broder, there would have been plenty of room for a great writer. Popularity isn't important at the Washington Post. It's too busy have a circle jerk with the right wing.
Screw WaPo. Piece of dogshit newspaper anyways. Froomkin was the ONLY blog I read. suffice to say with his following he'll have NO problem finding a job. He will continue writing and the stupid shits that run the paper will realize after losing viewership and credility they just shot themselves in their dumb ass. Too bad.. Tough Shit. Paper isn't even good enough to line the floor of a cockroache's home now.
Great! Among the 3 best known American newspapers: the LA Times fires Robert Scheer, the NY Times hires William Kristol, and now the Washington Post fires Dan Froomkin. It really is a very bad sign for America when its leading, supposedly ultra-liberal newspaper can see logic in their firing of Froomkin, while at the same time holding onto their own real-life Dr. Strangelove, Charles Krauthammer!
Let's face it, when it really counts (circa 2002 pre-Iraq for example) both the NY Times and the Washington Post are mostly just water-carriers for those in power. Both of them are endlessly proud of their royal appointments as awe-struck White House stenographers.
It's gotten so bad that some of the most provocative and courageous journalism these days can be seen on Comedy Central with the Daily Show/Colbert Report, and on late-night talk shows like Letterman. The most incredible moment had to be when the establishment press and their boss (George "W") got skewered by Steven Colbert at the annual DC Press Corps dinner in 2006. It was a brave and brilliant slam dunk by Colbert. But afterwards, most of the press big shots were so upset at being exposed (not to mention "W") that they falsely reviewed Colbert as being "not that funny" (...or so they wished!).
Washinton Post, hear ye, hear ye, I don't need you, the world don't need you, so I highly recommend that you deliver yourselves to a place who do need you, all the disenfrancised blird cages around the country. And let me hear your last words before your demise, Et tu Bruta? and my reply would be "No man ain't at nothin."
Wash post will soon find out, they will go the way of newspapers who blantly lied, TV news and other media who were supposed to protect us but let madmen lie us into unending war..We have to wonder what they got in the excange..Wash. post thinks it doesnt need us ,but we need them. They sure are full of themselves..They need us we dont need them..If they are not credible why care what they say.If we want misinformation we will tune into fox..
The MSM ran by the NWO corporations (most are members of the NWO global slave government-agenda CFR) just simply will not allow the truth to be told for long. They have to keep their mind control machine in full court press while they steal your nation and enslave your grandchildren, all the while with everyone thinking "everything is fine"
except for the BOOGIE MAN, whoemever it may be today. but don't worry uncle sam and hif fascist cohorts backed by enough nuclear weapons to destroy our planet several tiomoes over, will protect you, because they are GOOD, and the truth is BAD, got it, citizen?
and OBAMA IS A LIAR, has this man said one true thing yet?
http://patriotsquestion911.com
Hey, big deal. Froomkin will resurface somewhere and continue doing quality work. The Washington Post will continue to spiral into irrelevancy. WaPo is the big loser here.
They lost me long ago when they editorialized against those trying to hold the Bush Administration accountable for the outing of Valerie Plame.
Screw them!!