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State of Play: Scoop Machine
The Washington Post was supposed to be dead by now. Remember? Back in February, Post leadership enacted massive layoffs [ [link removed] ], axing more than a third of its newsroom staff — about 300 out of 800 — gutting the sports section and the metro section and dismantling its once-formidable international news infrastructure, in what was billed as an important step toward solvency. Foreign reporters were left stranded [ [link removed] ] in other countries, tens of thousands of people canceled their subscriptions [ [link removed] ] in an effort to punish centibillionaire owner Jeff Bezos, and prominent Post alumni wrote obituaries for the paper with headlines like, “An Elegy for My Washington Post [ [link removed] ]” and “The Murder of The Washington Post [ [link removed] ].”
But the paper did not die. In fact, you could argue that the remaining reporters are on a historic tear. That’s particularly true on the national security team, where the Post has landed scoop after scoop in recent months: the Air Force One catering cart switcheroo [ [link removed] ], the covert CIA program in the Galapagos [ [link removed] ], Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth fighting about interceptor stockpiles [ [link removed] ] at Camp David, and on [ [link removed] ] and on [ [link removed] ]. This is particularly remarkable for the Pentagon reporters, who, like the rest of the press corps, have essentially been banned from Pentagon grounds, a fact that struck me once again on Monday as I struggled to absorb two more Post [ [link removed] ] exclusives [ [link removed] ] before our taping.
Dan Lamothe, the military correspondent behind so many of the Post’s big exclusives of late, told me in an email that “the layoffs in February were the toughest thing I’ve encountered here,” but that he’s proud of the newsroom’s resilience. He was blunt about how the crackdown from Hegseth’s staff constrains his reporting, however. He said he relies more on conversations at night, after sources have left the office for the day. And because he doesn’t get much cooperation from the DoD spokespeople, he generally only approaches them when a story is almost done and they’ll be forced to comment. Lamothe also said he and his coworkers have no choice but to trust each other and pool their material: “We’ve all got some sources that talk to numerous journalists and others who will speak to only one of us. By layering that work, we’re able to confirm a lot more, move more quickly, and beat competitors.”
Obviously there’s a lot to be skeptical of in Bezos’s stewardship of the paper, not just in business decisions, but in editorial matters, too. His infamous cancellation [ [link removed] ] of the paper’s planned Kamala Harris endorsement comes to mind, as does his mandate that the opinion section write only in support of “personal liberties and free markets.” But it’s just as obvious that withholding your money mainly hurts the paper’s journalists, not its owner.
I asked Lamothe what his pitch would be for why readers like you should subscribe [ [link removed] ] to the Post. “This is an easy one: We’re relentless,” he said. “The record is quite clear that we’re doing revelatory work, holding powerful people to account, and publishing news that forces competitors to chase us. There’s something old-school about that, and my hope is that smart, engaged citizens who tuned out for a while will see what we’re doing and feel compelled to support it.”
My take? You should.
What We’re Watching
I’m out of the office on Thursday, and auto-sent this from the past, which is why you’re getting it early. The items below represent our best guess as of Wednesday evening. Austin will take the reins and update the outline in a couple hours. We have a great interview running in tomorrow’s show: Tommy’s conversation with journalist Jasper Nathaniel, who’s been doing incredible on-the-ground reporting about the horrors taking place in the West Bank. Don’t miss it. Before that, we’ll hit some combination of the following:
The Trump show. Trump’s much-anticipated midterm ad campaign has begun! The first spot [ [link removed] ], from a pro-Trump PAC called Securing American Greatness, is, as expected, all about Trump. It’s quite a watch. Is this a good idea, given the president’s approval ratings are starting to register historic lows [ [link removed] ]? Meanwhile, the Treasury Department has released a $1 coin featuring Trump’s face [ [link removed] ], and Trump himself announced [ [link removed] ] he’d like to change the Hormuz Strait to the “Trump Strait.” Then there’s the Republicans’ midterm convention, which Trump will keynote, coming next week. Oddly, it seems that a lot of GOP lawmakers have other commitments [ [link removed] ] those two days.
Election meddling. A whistleblower at the US Postal Service [ [link removed] ] has alleged, via a report [ [link removed] ] released by Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal, that the USPS is moving ahead with a “secretive, rushed, chaotic, and fundamentally flawed” effort to enact Trump’s executive order on mail-in voting, regardless of ongoing litigation [ [link removed] ]. The USPS has already begun [ [link removed] ] building a ballot screening process, despite internal reservations [ [link removed] ] from top USPS officials. The New York Times also reported [ [link removed] ] on Wednesday that hundreds of Department of Homeland Security agents have been assigned to ferret out (nonexistent) noncitizen voter fraud. Not great.
Democratic squabbles. Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, the 80-year-old incumbent, won his primary against 47-year-old Congressman Seth Moulton by a landslide [ [link removed] ]. Why didn’t the smash-the-gerontocracy pitch work this time? We’ll dig in. Back in DC, Hakeem Jeffries and House Democrats are looking to penalize [ [link removed] ] two of their own – centrist Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington and Jared Golden of Maine – who unexpectedly broke with Democrats and helped Republicans pass a key procedural measure that otherwise would have failed. The details are complicated, and Democratic leadership’s fury seems maybe slightly out of proportion, so we’re going to force Dan to read all about it and explain to the rest of us, and you, whether and why the revolt matters.
Open Tabs
This week, three articles organized around a common theme: people lacking the maturity to do their jobs properly:...

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