The Washington Post is dying. They are bleeding money and subscribers, and the top management threw a Hail Mary and fired Sally Buzbee--the woke and incompetent Executive Editor. 

The newsroom erupted for a variety of reasons, but the one that really chapped their behinds was that both the interim Managing Editor and the soon-to-be permanent Managing Editor were White males from the U.K. 

WaPo staff threw a massive hissy fit like the mental toddlers that they are, can’t blame Winnett for realizing he was walking into an intellectually and ideologically toxic work environment and deciding he didn’t need that

It’ll be fun watching you guys go under

— Enguerrand VII de Coucy (@ingelramdecoucy) June 21, 2024

The newsroom commissars were so upset that they did an "investigation" into Robert Winnett, the incoming M.E. and produced a nasty and distorted hit piece on him over the weekend. It was extraordinary, and an example of exactly why the paper has been in freefall--the inmates are running the asylum at the Post. 

Now the reporters are doing a victory lap, running a story that is a thinly-veiled "we got him!" piece. Winnett has decided to stay away from the toxic environment, and they love it!

Robert Winnett, the British journalist recently tapped to become editor of The Washington Post later this year, will not take the job and will remain at the Daily Telegraph in London, according to a memo obtained by The Post on Friday.

“I’m pleased to report that Rob Winnett has decided to stay with us,” Telegraph editor Chris Evans wrote to staff. “As you all know, he’s a talented chap and their loss is our gain.”

Winnett, deputy editor of London’s Telegraph Media Group, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis confirmed that Winnett had withdrawn from the position, relaying the news “with regret” in a note to Post staff. “Rob has my greatest respect and is an incredibly talented editor and journalist,” Lewis wrote. “The leadership at The Telegraph Media Group are reaffirming his continued role as deputy editor.”

Winnett's supposed crime? Being associated with journalistic tactics common in the United Kingdom but less so in the United States. 

The announcement came after days of turmoil at The Post, triggered by the abrupt exit of executive editor Sally Buzbee as well as questions about the past practices of both Winnett and Lewis — veterans of London newsrooms that operate by different rules than their American counterparts.

Lewis announced Winnett’s hiring just 2½ weeks ago. They previously worked together at both the Telegraph and the Sunday Times.

A Telegraph spokesperson said the newspaper would not be commenting beyond Friday's staff note from Evans.

In his staff email Friday morning, Lewis said The Post would immediately begin a search for a replacement. “We will soon announce both the recruiting firm and process we will utilize to ensure a timely but thorough search for this important leadership role,” he wrote.

Winnett has spent his entire career in British journalism and was practically unknown in American media circles. Lewis had announced that Winnett would join The Post after the November U.S. presidential election, and oversee the traditional news division.

Reporters at the Post had complained that the interim and permanent replacements for Buzzbee didn't share the culture of the Post and weren't "diverse" enough to fit in, but of course, that was the point. The Post is on a glide path to bankruptcy and total irrelevance in Washington and beyond, and radical change was necessary. 

As with many activists, the reporters don't care. They want to control things and push their agenda and expect Jeff Bezos to subsidize their incompetence indefinitely. 

They are intellectual toddlers--any newspaper that fires competent reporters and keeps Philip Bump and Taylor Lorenz as prominent parts of their newsroom is doomed. 

In a newsroom meeting earlier this month, Lewis called Winnett “a world class editor” and “a brilliant investigative journalist,” who he promised “will restore an even greater degree of investigative rigor to our organization.”

The disruption at the top of The Post’s newsroom also delays Lewis’s plans to reorganize The Post this year. A new division of the newsroom — dubbed the “Third Newsroom” and focused on reaching audiences not already consuming Post content — will now launch sometime during the first three months of 2025, Lewis wrote in a note to staff.

Former Wall Street Journal executive editor Matt Murray — another former Lewis associate — was recently hired to replace Buzbee temporarily, and run the “Third Newsroom” after the 2024 election. He will stay on as executive editor after the November races.

The Washington Post is hardly the only paper where the younger activists are determining policy and hiring. The New York Times has not been bleeding cash, but they have been bleeding talent due to political activists in the newsroom taking people out. 

The Free Press, started by Bari Weiss, features several exiles from the Times. Rampant antisemitism, CRT and gender ideology activism, and a zeal to destroy anybody who isn't on board with The Narrative™ have led to several departures from the paper. 

Executives have lost control of their institutions in many American corporations, having adopted ESG as a guiding principle. This invited activists into corporate boardrooms, HR departments, and corporate PR positions--leading to wholesale changes that gave activists dominance in the companies. 

The results have been terrible, but it's difficult to see how these mistakes can be easily reversed. It will be a long, slow process, if it can be done at all. 

Some companies, like the Post, may not survive long enough.