June 7, 2022

"So whether the staffers and editors at places like the Times and the Post ignored the riots of summer 2020 while genuflecting to the lunatic idea that op-eds are violence..."

"... because they were true believers in the new dogma or because they were careerists or because they were just plain scared only meant that some of them broke your heart more than others. But knowing that wasn’t enough to untether me, even after I left. The real way I finally left old media is through the thrill of building something new. The moment I began this publication was the moment everything changed for me. As someone who was used to sitting in the bleachers with the other critics, I finally understood what all that talk about building new things was about. I’m making something that I am proud of with people I admire.... If the best journalism right now is fractured between hundreds of Twitter feeds, newsletters and podcasts, making it impossible for normal, busy people to discover it, we ultimately want to bring it all together in one place. We want to be your algorithm."

Writes Bari Weiss in "The Washington Post’s Descent Into Middle School Antics/And why we're building something new" (Common Sense).

21 comments:

rhhardin said...

Needless to say, all of this is only possible with your support. If you haven’t yet become a subscriber, now is as good a time as ever:

So they need clicks.

Kevin said...

No media boss tells us which one of his enemies we must go out and attack today, or what the overarching narrative of our stories is going to be.

How do you talk about lack of trust in the media and skip over this reason as if it just, somehow, happened?

The real stories you should be telling aren't about Dave Weigel, because lots of people can tell that story. The stories you should be telling describe the mechanisms for which the Post and the Times and others forced their reporters to bend the truth when they knew it to be improper reporting.

That's a story or ten only Bari Weiss can tell.

Jupiter said...

"... some of them broke your heart more than others."

She's still one of them, in her broken little heart. She doesn't hate their reeking guts.

Wa St Blogger said...

Thanks to Althouse for finding some of these members of the media diasporia and making a few more people aware of them. Maybe one day a journalist will be judged by the content of their product and not the banner under which it was published.

Kai Akker said...

No. Bari is not going to be my algorithm. Surely there are much hotter contenders for that intimacy.

That was a yawner. Everyone in these comments has known all that about the NYT and the Wapo for decades.

Bari thinks it's still news. Sorry. Dog bites man.

Kate said...

When Realclear links to her substack I pop over. She's not horrible.

cfkane1701 said...

I say this whenever I can: Bari Weiss may do and say things conservatives approve of, but to embrace her is a mistake. If one was to walk up to her and declare that one proudly voted for Donald Trump, one would see her true colors.

I'm not saying that approval of Donald Trump is a litmus test for conservatives, but at least real conservatives can understand why one voted for Donald Trump. Bari Weiss cannot get there. She despised Donald Trump. At least she did during the podcast I listened to while he was still president. It was back in the glorious twenty minutes of the "Intellectual Dark Web." She made good noises about respectful conversations, but that all went out the window when the Bad Orange Man's name came up. And because of that, for me at least, she resides in the camp of Joe Rogan and Bill Maher. To a certain extent, they are aware of the excesses of those they considered to be on "their side." But they still consider themselves to be on a side, and most conservatives are not there.

She simply cannot be trusted. Good for her for waking up at least part way, but that's as much credit as I'm willing to give her.

rcocean said...

Good she's in favor of Free Speech, but she's still a Leftist. And a neocon warmonger.

realestateacct said...

I subscribe to the Substack and read it with some regularity, but I'm put off by their reflexive anti-Republican attitudes. I don't think they can build it much further without broadening their outlook to listen to what the right is saying with respect and rational disagreement instead of dismissive snark.

RideSpaceMountain said...

"...And why we're building something new"

Bari ,the hell you are.

Andrew said...

A little off the subject, but I think Felicia Sonmez at the WaPo is kind of cute. Hysterical, perhaps bipolar, but cute.

Leland said...

She's far better than most, but she still has a little more to go before I'll throw money at her. Her current actions are positive and her support of new media is polar opposite of what her old media pals are doing. Good on her, but first she has to get me back to her podcast, and its been months since I've found a topic worth my time.

gilbar said...

Bari has done more to make me okay with Gay Marriage than the rest of Gaydom put together

Greg The Class Traitor said...

I regularly read Althouse.

If Weise manages to produce something as sane as this blog (a high standard),l then I'll read that too

Assuming they have comments

Quaestor said...

"We want to be your algorithm."

Huh??

Jupiter said...

She's just pissed off because the younger lying Communist weasels pushed older Communist weasels like herself out of their cozy little perches. She liked it better when she got paid to swan around thinking highly of herself and her Commie friends.

lane ranger said...

There are some journalists who are part-way through a process of taking off the blinders and seeing what is actually happening. During that process, some reflexive anti-Trump b.s. is to be expected, and should be ignored. I subscribe to Bari, Matt T. and Glenn G., not because I'm a liberal or they're conservative, but because I want to encourage them on their path, even though they're not yet where they need to end up. Think of them more in terms of Neo's discussion about changing teams; it's hard, painful and slow, and people on the left who show signs of budding awareness and a modicum of good faith need to be supported along the way.

typingtalker said...

The only constant is change.

holdfast said...

Weiss is ok, though she’s still on the Left. She’s at best a temporary ally of convenience.

Some of her guests, however, are really interesting.

mikee said...

I don't want to be serviced by a personalized algorithm. I want to have a venue available where I can see everything in all its glory. Sometimes I'll pick one thing, sometimes I'll pick another. But having my news source choosing what I see next, based on what I picked in the past, is eventually and always a losing game. Over timeI end up seeing only a narrow band of what is available, and will be denied access to most of what is ongoing.

It is jam today and jam tomorrow, when (as Auntie Mame explained) the world is a banquet. Live, live, live!

Tina Trent said...

She doesn't have a very long memory of the manipulation of journalists. Whether you're sitting in the Times enduring Maoist Mau Mauing or taking cash from dictators to start so-called independent investigations (just ask Glenn Greenwald) or trapped in Beltway-inc of any stripe, or buying into a platform run by internet princelings busy suppressing other views, somebody owns you.

And that person is going to decide what you get to say, sooner or later.

I think only Mark Steyn escaped. And he has been sitting in courtrooms for over a decade and had to leave his home country (Canada) to keep from being arrested for telling the truth.

And they'll get him here soon enough.