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** OPINION
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** Washington Post columnist resigns after her critical column is spiked
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(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Another day, another headline that raises the question: What the heck is going on at The Washington Post?

The latest? On Monday, well-respected Post columnist and associate editor Ruth Marcus, who has been at the paper for 40 years (yes, you read that right: four decades), resigned. She said she quit after her column criticizing Post owner Jeff Bezos and his plans for the paper was killed by publisher and CEO Will Lewis.

Just late last month, Bezos announced an overhaul ([link removed]) of the Post’s opinion pages, writing to staff, “We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

That announcement led to another well-respected journalist, David Shipley, stepping down as the Post’s opinions editor.

Now Marcus steps away.

In her resignation letter, Marcus wrote, “Jeff's announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable.”

Marcus added, “Will's decision to not … run the column that I wrote respectfully dissenting from Jeff's edict — something that I have not experienced in almost two decades of column-writing — underscores that the traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded.”

Problems at the Post have been spiraling out of control since last summer when executive editor Sally Buzbee stepped down and the paper began trying to sort out how to divide the leadership in a revamped newsroom. Matt Murray is the paper's top editor and, quite frankly, despite losing several top editors and reporters, the newsroom continues to put out impressive work. If you read this newsletter consistently, you’ll know that I am constantly linking to the Post’s fine journalism.

The issue — and bad PR — has been in the editorial department, which is separate from the newsroom. There, problems came to a head last year when Bezos killed the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for president.

Since then, it feels like a slow but steady drip of departures, cancelled subscriptions and other less-than-flattering headlines.

Regarding Marcus’ departure, a Washington Post spokesperson told NPR’s David Folkenflik ([link removed]) in a statement, “We're grateful for Ruth's significant contributions to The Washington Post over the past 40 years. We respect her decision to leave and wish her the best.”

Marcus said in her resignation letter, “I love the Post. It breaks my heart to conclude that I must leave. I have the deepest affection and admiration for my colleagues and will miss them every day. And I wish you both the best as you steer this storied and critical institution through troubled times.”


** More Post news
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Axios’ Sara Fischer reported ([link removed]) Monday that the Post will make “major changes” to the newsroom in an effort to broaden the paper’s coverage and expand its audience.

According to a memo obtained by Fischer, the Post will divide the national desk into two sections: one that focuses on national reporting and another with politics and government coverage. In addition, Fischer wrote, business, technology, health, science and climate teams at the Post will be brought together in a new department.

Executive editor Matt Murray told Fischer that broadening coverage will help the paper become less dependent on political news. Murray told Fischer, “I want to make sure there are a few areas that are equally staffed and strong to make sure we're always putting a strong foot forward and that we're not just the politics paper, even though that's important to who we are.”

What’s it all mean? We haven’t even seen the changes in action, so it’s way too early to say. But it sounds like more upheaval is in store, and not just in the opinion section.


** X outages
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Yikes, it has been a rough few days for President Donald Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk. Last week, his SpaceX Starship rocket exploded less than 10 minutes after launch and rained debris over the state of Florida. (By the way, if you’re keeping score at home, Starship rocket launches are now 0-for-2 in 2025, with both ending in explosions.)

Then, on Monday, Musk’s other big toy, the social media platform X, was on the fritz. Ten of thousands of X users suffered outages at various times on Monday.

In a post on X ([link removed]) , Musk wrote early Monday afternoon, “There was (still is) a massive cyberattack against X. We get attacked every day, but this was done with a lot of resources. Either a large, coordinated group and/or a country is involved. Tracing …”

But was it a cyberattack? It’s not the first time Musk has cried about a cyberattack whenever X has gone down.

CNN’s Ramishah Maruf wrote ([link removed]) , “Musk has a history of attributing technical snafus to cyberattacks. When his conversation with Donald Trump on X started 42 minutes late in August 2024, he said there was a ‘probability’ of an attack.”

There was absolutely no evidence that X was a victim of a cyberattack.

Gizmodo’s Matt Novak wrote ([link removed]) , “Musk appears to just be speculating about the cause of the outages, given how he leaves everything so open-ended.” Novak added, “We may never get a real answer for why X is struggling today, but you can rest assured that whatever’s actually happening, Musk will capitalize on it to claim he’s a victim. That’s the MAGA mindset, and it doesn’t matter that Musk is the wealthiest man in the world. These guys always find a way to sound like they’re an oppressed minority.”

The outages were off and on, but long enough that NFL fans were a bit riled up. As CNBC’s Ashley Capoot and Alex Sherman noted ([link removed]) , “The timing of the X outage couldn’t have been worse for NFL fans, who rely on the service for news updates. The first day of the NFL’s free agency tampering window began at 12 p.m. ET with the service down, sending fans searching for other options such as linear TV and Bluesky to get their news on player signings.”


** Speaking of Musk …
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Elon Musk, walking on the South Lawn of the White House on Sunday. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Musk has more worries than his spaceships blowing up and his social media site crashing. The Washington Post’s Elizabeth Dwoskin, Faiz Siddiqui and Emily Davies wrote a story ([link removed]) with this intriguing headline: “Turmoil within DOGE spills into public view as Musk’s group confronts a PR crisis.”

The Post wrote:

Only two days after praising billionaire Elon Musk, who oversees the DOGE team, in an address to Congress, President Donald Trump sided last week with frustrated agency heads, saying they — not Musk — are in charge of making cuts in their departments. On Truth Social, Trump called for more precision, writing: “We say the ‘scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’” And in pro-Trump districts, voters have stormed town halls to protest DOGE cuts to government services and firings of thousands of civil servants. The backlash is triggering a reckoning within DOGE, where some are coming to realize that history may not perceive their efforts kindly unless they can change the narrative.


** Five years later
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The world changed five years ago today. March 11, 2020, was the day the World Health Organization officially classified COVID-19 as a pandemic. The world essentially shut down. Millions of people died.

Eventually, vaccines were developed, and for most, although not all, there was a return to normalcy. However, the aftereffects have not totally disappeared. COVID-19 has not been eradicated; many still live with long-term health impacts from the virus, and the global economy is still being affected.

I wanted to take a few moments today to remember this grim anniversary with important works of journalism:
* Still heart-wrenching, inspiring and important reminders in photos and text from The New York Times: “Enduring Images of a Global Crisis.” ([link removed])
* From The New York Times and The Upshot, Aatish Bhatia and Irineo Cabreros with “30 Charts That Show How Covid Changed Everything.” ([link removed])
* And one more from The New York Times. Dani Blum, Nina Agrawal and Alice Callahan with “A Clearer Picture of Covid’s Lasting Effects on the Body.” ([link removed])
* Reuters’ Canan Sevgili, Paolo Laudani, Alessandro Parodi and Alberto Chiumento with “COVID-19 shut us down five years ago. Here's how its economic impact continues.” ([link removed])
* And, finally, from Science News, McKenzie Prillaman with “5 years after COVID-19 became a pandemic, are we ready for what’s next?” ([link removed])


** Today’s word of the day: recession
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As I mentioned in Monday’s newsletter ([link removed]) , President Trump was asked if we were headed toward a recession during a weekend interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. Trump told her, “I hate to predict things like that. There is a period of transition, because what we’re doing is very big. We’re bringing wealth back to America. That’s a big thing. And there are always periods of … it takes a little time, it takes a little time.”

Trump also told Bartiromo, “Look, what I have to do is build a strong country. You can’t really watch the stock market. If you look at China, they have a 100-year perspective. We have a quarter. We go by quarters.”

Wait, is Trump suggesting we take a 100-year view of the economy?

Anyway, later on Sunday, while on Air Force One, Trump was asked about his comments to Bartiromo. A reporter asked, “Are you worried about a recession? Maria Bartiromo asked you, and you kind of hesitated.”

Trump said, “I’ll tell you what, of course you hesitate. Who knows? All I know is this: We’re gonna take in hundreds of billions of dollars in tariffs and we’re gonna become so rich you’re not gonna know where to spend all that money, I’m telling you, you just watch! We’re gonna have jobs, we’re gonna have open factories, it’s gonna be great.”

Trump ended the interview because he said the plane was getting ready to land.

Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, Wall Street had its worst day of 2025 on Monday, with the S&P 500 index falling 2.7%.


** Media tidbits
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* The New York Times’ Ken Bensinger and Reid J. Epstein with “MeidasTouch Pops on Podcast Charts as Progressives Search for Answers.” ([link removed])
* Writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, Jack Herrera with “The Houston Landing Has Lost a Major Funder.” ([link removed])
* The Baltimore Banner’s Cody Boteler with “One year in, Baltimore Sun’s new owner faces losses in readership and staff.” ([link removed])
* Picking this up from last week: Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano with “Did AI really defend the KKK at the end of my column? Let’s discuss.” ([link removed])
* The New York Times’ Jessica Testa with “Michelle Obama’s Next Act: Video Podcaster.” ([link removed])
* Craig Wolfley, the radio analyst for the Pittsburgh Steelers, has died. He was 66. Wolfley had recently been diagnosed with cancer. He spent 12 seasons (1980-1991) in the NFL, including the first 10 with the Steelers. After retirement, he worked in various roles on the Steelers’ radio broadcasts. Here’s more from The Associated Press’ Will Graves ([link removed]) .


** Hot type
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* Just one Hot Type item today because it’s rather long. But it’s rather good, too, especially if you’re into sports lists. It’s The Ringer with “The 100 Best Sports Moments of the Quarter Century.” ([link removed])


** More resources for journalists
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* Gain a deeper understanding of Immigration policy with Poynter’s Beat Academy training. Enroll now ([link removed]) .
* Elevate your editing expertise with the Poynter ACES Advanced Certificate. Enroll now ([link removed]) .
* This Poynter Leadership Academy is our flagship workshop for experienced managers and leaders. Apply by March 24 ([link removed]) .
* Get an AI ethics framework for your newsroom. Start here ([link removed]) .

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) .
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