The Washington Post just lived a week that will live in infamy

What a bizarre week at The Washington Post. Bizarre and puzzling and heartbreaking — not necessarily in that order.

It started last Wednesday with massive layoffs in what former editor Marty Baron called one of the “darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations.” Another former star reporter, Ashley Parker, called it a murder.

The week ended in startling fashion on Saturday when publisher and CEO Will Lewis abruptly resigned in a short (less than 100 words) note to staff. He said it was the “right time” to step away. He thanked Post owner Jeff Bezos, although he did not bother to mention any journalist by name or even the staff as an entity. And he said that during his two-year tenure, “difficult decisions have been taken in order to ensure the sustainable future of the Post.”

Thus ended what will go down as one of the most controversial and blundering executive stints in modern media history.

New York Times reporter Kevin Draper summed it up well in his tweet, “Came to one of the best journalism organizations on the planet, had only bad ideas for 2 years, didn't stop the owner from a self-destructive move, laid off hundreds of people and then dipped. Incredible.”

During Lewis’ two years in charge, the stories that stood out about the paper were far more negative than positive — and that was before last week’s layoffs.

As Semafor’s Max Tani noted, “Lewis, who resigned Saturday after overseeing deep cuts to the newsroom, lost his footing over two errors, one of his and one of owner Jeff Bezos’s: First, Lewis blocked the Post reporting on his role in the UK phone hacking scandal, preventing the publication of a story few would have read anyway. Then, Bezos pulled a planned endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris at the 11th hour, for apparent fear of offending Donald Trump. That endorsement wouldn’t have made much of a difference politically, but hundreds of thousands of subscribers canceled over what they saw as a craven capitulation.”

In fact, it’s hard to find anything that Lewis did at the Post that could be hailed as successful or even innovative.

As Status’ Jon Passantino noted, “The former Rupert Murdoch lieutenant has never articulated or executed on a clear vision for the paper. And the few announcements he has made, like the notorious and briefly lived ‘third newsroom’ concept, have ended in disaster, wasting precious time as the industry quickly evolves and audiences move on.”

Then, last week, when the Post was laying off a third of the newsroom and essentially gutting the foreign desk and sports department, Lewis was nowhere to be found. He wasn’t on the Zoom call informing Post staffers of the layoffs or future strategies, and didn’t even send a note to the staff.

Then he was found: at the Super Bowl’s NFL Honors celebration. How’s that for irony? You kill the sports section, lay off some of the best journalists in the business, and then show up at one of the biggest parties in sports.

The Financial Times reported that Post owner Jeff Bezos was not pleased about that particular look. One source told FT, “Bezos lost patience after the Super Bowl thing.” The source added, “Senior management at The Post were livid when they discovered that Lewis was attending festivities around the Super Bowl in San Francisco around the time of the news of the jobs cuts. It came off as ‘callous.'”

Whether he left on his own or was pushed really doesn’t matter at this point, not after hundreds at the Post have already been let go,

The Post’s Katie Mettler told The New York Times, “I’m glad Will Lewis has been fired. I wish it had happened before he fired all my friends.”

It also should be noted that while Lewis was the chief executive of the Post, the owner is Bezos, who also wasn’t heard from following the layoffs. He did put out a statement following Lewis’ departure, saying in part, “The Post has an essential journalistic mission and an extraordinary opportunity. Each and every day our readers give us a roadmap to success. The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.”

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Who’s the new boss?

Jeff D’Onofrio, the chief financial officer of the Post, has been named acting chief executive.

In a statement, D’Onofrio said, “The Post’s resolute commitment to writing the first rough draft of history anchors and imprints its future. I am honored to become part of charting that future and to take the lead in securing both the legacy and business of this fierce, storied American institution.”

D’Onofrio joined the Post in 2025 after executive leadership roles at places such as Raptive, Tumblr, Yahoo, Google and Major League Baseball.

He is, obviously, stepping into a less-than-ideal situation with a newsroom that is depleted and, from many reports, angry and saddened. Morale there is not good.

D’Onofrio said in his statement, “This is a challenging time across all media organizations, and The Post is unfortunately no exception. I’ve had the privilege of helping chart the course of disrupters and cultural stalwarts alike. All faced economic headwinds in changing industry landscapes, and we rose to meet those moments. I have no doubt we will do just that, together.”

He added, “I’m honored to take the helm as acting Publisher and CEO to lead us into a sustainable, successful future with the strength of our journalism as our north star. I look forward to working shoulder to shoulder with all of you to make that happen.”

Perhaps the one thing he has going for him is that he is not Lewis.

The New York Times’ Benjamin Mullin, Katie Robertson and Erik Wemple wrote of this anecdote: “Early in his tenure, Mr. Lewis made personal overtures to The Post’s journalists to inspire confidence in the future. On a summer night in August 2024, he met Josh Dawsey, then a political enterprise reporter for The Post, at the Four Seasons in Georgetown and pitched a new vision for The Post, according to two people familiar with the matter. Over several drinks, Mr. Lewis told Mr. Dawsey that he intended to be there for the long haul — at least seven years — and that he would outlast his critics, the people said. After the meeting, Mr. Dawsey told colleagues that he had offered to make introductions for Mr. Lewis to help him build relationships in the newsroom. Mr. Dawsey never heard from Mr. Lewis again.”

The Trump interview

“NBC Nightly News” anchor Tom Llamas interviewed President Donald Trump for the Super Bowl pregame show. The interview was actually recorded last Wednesday, but different portions of it aired on the “Nightly News” and “Top Story with Tom Llamas” on NBC News NOW.

In the part that exclusively aired on Sunday’s pregame show, Llamas asked Trump about the economy and Minneapolis, but the most concerning part was Trump once again suggesting that elections in this country are not fair. Apparently, despite winning two of the past three presidential elections, Trump is still complaining about the election he did lose — one that has been found legitimate time and time again.

Trump told Llamas, “We have to do something about our voting. We need strong borders. We need a fair press, which we don't have. And we need — and very importantly, we need a strong border, the fair press, and we need fair elections. We need elections where people aren't able to cheat. And we're gonna do that. I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna get it done. And by the way, it polls even with Democrats. They want that.”

It’s unclear what polls Trump is referring to.

Meanwhile …

The topic of elections also came up on the Sunday morning shows.

Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California went on ABC’s “This Week” and told co-moderator Jonathan Karl, “I think (Trump) intends to try to subvert the elections. And if he loses the vote … he's prepared to try to take some kind of action to overturn the result, and we really shouldn't question that.”

In recent days, Trump has called for nationalized elections. That talk followed a Jan. 28 raid of a Fulton County, Georgia, election office by the FBI, which seized ballots from the 2020 election.

Schiff told Karl, “We cannot ignore what they're telling us they're going to do, because time and time again, we have seen that they're willing to go to extraordinary and lawless lengths.”

Schiff added, “The best protection we have is to mobilize the largest voter turnout in U.S. history to so overwhelm the vote … so that there's no way they can cheat.”

A racist post

So much happens every day in this country that it’s sometimes hard to remember what happened two or three days ago.

But we can’t let today pass without mentioning what showed up on Trump’s social media platform late last week: a racist animation of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted with the bodies of apes.

The New York Times’ Erica L. Green, Isabella Kwai and Zolan Kanno-Youngs wrote, “The clip, set to ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight,’ was spliced near the end of a 62-second video that promoted conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and was among a flurry of links posted by Mr. Trump late Thursday night. It was the latest in a pattern by Mr. Trump of promoting offensive imagery and slurs about Black Americans and others.”

The Times added, “The clip was in line with Mr. Trump’s history of making degrading remarks about people of color, women and immigrants, and he has for years singled out the Obamas. Across Mr. Trump’s administration, racist images and slogans have become common on government websites and accounts, with the White House, Labor Department and Homeland Security Department all having promoted posts that echo white supremacist messaging.”

Not surprisingly, the Trump administration twisted itself into a pretzel to distance itself from controversy, first saying it was no big deal.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt actually said, “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

Meanwhile, many Republicans condemned the post. It was up for about 12 hours until it was taken down. The White House put out a statement saying, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post.”

When asked about it on Air Force One, Trump said he didn’t see the part with the Obamas. He said, “I just looked at the first part, it was about voter fraud in some place, Georgia. I didn’t see the whole thing.”

Trump also said he passed it along to someone else to post.

When asked if he would apologize for the post, Trump said, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.”

In a column for The New York Times, Maureen Dowd wrote, “It seems etymologically, metaphysically, geologically and ethically impossible that President Trump could reach a new low. But he has.”

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Super Bowl (and halftime) thoughts

Super Bowl LX turned out to be a dud of a game with the Seattle Seahawks easily handling the mostly punchless New England Patriots. Here are some thoughts from Sunday’s game, including halftime.

• First off, can we agree that the day’s programming around the Super Bowl is entirely too long? The good news is that you don’t have to watch it, and I’m sure there are fans, particularly of the two teams actually in the game, who eat up every second of it. But, yeah, the pregame is longer than the game.
• The broadcast, as you would expect, was top-notch. I say “as you would expect” because NBC’s NFL coverage is always superb. Announcers Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth are both outstanding, and on their good days, they’re as good as anyone in the business. They didn’t have a ton to work with on Sunday, given the so-so game, but they made the most of what they did have. Collinsworth, almost as soon as the game was underway, predicted it would be a defensive struggle and it certainly was — at least until the fourth quarter. 
• The halftime show with Bad Bunny? Outstanding, inspiring, thrilling. I can’t think of enough superlatives to describe how good it was. I’d rank it alongside Prince’s Super Bowl XLI show. Bad Bunny’s was, by far, the most expertly choreographed in the history of Super Bowl halftimes. It was a tribute to Bad Bunny’s Puerto Rican heritage and featured guest appearances from Lady Gaga and Ricky Martin.
• The Associated Press’ Maria Sherman gave her review of Bad Bunny’s halftime in “Bad Bunny brought Puerto Rico’s history and culture to a revolutionary Super Bowl show.”
• And, unsurprisingly, Trump was not a fan of a halftime show, posting on Truth Social that it was “one of the worst” ever and that it “makes no sense” and that “nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting” and on and on.
• We’ll have a better idea of the TV numbers for the game and halftime show over the next day. It might not quite reach last year’s record total of 127.7 million viewers, but it certainly will be well over 100 million.

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Media tidbits

• The Los Angeles Times’ LZ Granderson with “Trump keeps reminding us why people support him. It’s the racism.”
• Mediaite’s Colby Hall with “Trump’s Media Allies Embarrassed Themselves Defending His Racist Video.”
• And here’s Joe DePaolo with “Andy McCarthy Destroys Trump Family’s ‘Sordid’ Crypto Gambit in Scathing National Review Column.”
• The New York Times’ Reis Thebault and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs with “7 Days, No Suspects: The Disappearance of Nancy Guthrie.”
• Awful Announcing’s Sam Neumann with “NBC categorically denies editing crowd boos of JD Vance from Winter Olympics broadcast.”
• Louis Jacobson and Amy Sherman from Poynter’s PolitiFact with “A Super Bowl ad says every American child will get a free Trump Account. Is that true?”

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