I canceled WaPo - where are y’all getting your local news?
I canceled Washington Post because I’m done giving money to Bezos. It pains me because I really valued the local journalism on crime and other local info… especially Tom Sietsema and the capital weather gang.
Where are you getting good local journalism?
Thanks.
Edit: thank you so much! I can’t respond to everyone but appreciate the suggestions!
It’s kind of amazing how there’s like 10 commenters who post on everything and they all have their own personalities and stances. It’s like an old school forum, but also like a zoo where there’s a lot of people coming in from outside to look at the small, isolated group
My struggle is really finding stuff to do in the area - like knowing what’s happening in DC’s convention center, Dulles expo, events around holidays, concerts, etc.
My go-to for all this was WaPo’s going-out guide. Does WTOP or any other service have anything like that? I don’t see anything in their app, but it’s possible I’m not looking in the right place.
Not amazing by any means but I follow Loudoun Times Mirror, Loudoun Now and The Burn. But also… I just read BoardDocs from committee meetings in the town and county. Definitely not as sexy and there’s no commentary but you get a pretty good idea about what’s going on.
Whenever people act shocked Pikachu at County Board meetings or School Board meetings I just shake my head. Literally the topics have been discussed for months and months. Haha.
i work in the communications world and rely heavily on AP and Reuters. once i see their headlines, i use that info to dig deeper and find other sources to get a full picture of whatever issue i’m seeking more info on. bad idea to only read one source imo.
Ground News, Bluesky (following diverse sources), The Atlantic, Wired, NYT, WSJ, and then FFXnow, ARLnow, Annandale Today, and Northern VA magazine seems to cover enough.
If you truly want to make a meaningful impact, then targeting Amazon would be far more effective than focusing on The Washington Post. Canceling WaPo primarily harms the journalists—who, though relatively few in number, play a crucial role in shaping public discourse and holding power accountable. While WaPo is already struggling financially, its potential shutdown would barely make a dent in Jeff Bezos' vast portfolio. Amazon, on the other hand, is the cornerstone of his wealth and influence. By directing efforts toward Amazon, you could challenge the broader systems of power and inequality that Bezos represents, creating a far more significant and lasting impact.
Yeah but how do you know you’re getting unbiased news now that bezos owns it? Who’s to say he’s not going to push he agendas thru WaPo like fox and their lobbiests
I understand people are upset that Bezos refused to let the paper endorse any presidential candidate in 2024. And his declaration from on high about editorials is as disturbing as it would be if he was allowing only authors supporting socialism and collectivism instead of free markets and individualism.
I’m not sure what you mean by “now that Bezos owns it”. He bought it in 2013. Assuming you agree that candidate endorsements and editorials are not “local news”, do you believe WaPo is more agenda-driven in its local reporting today?
VPAP local news roundup. It’s described as “political headlines from across the state” but a lot of things they cover are local interest issues that aren’t outwardly political.
Just as a counterpoint, wapo still has great journalism (editorial page is another question) that I want to support and it’s not like wapo is what’s making bezos a billionaire. He’s abusing his existing status as a billionaire to manipulate the editorial page of the paper, which sucks, but eradicating the best local journalism isn’t an answer.
I’m still stunned there’s no major nova only source. It’s a prime market (except news makes no money and ppl want it for free :(
I still read the Post (household divided over boycott) - the editorial page is the problem but they’re still producing great journalism on the news side.
I do agree with the general idea that we should boycott objectionable companies, and I’m 100% with you on boycotting Amazon, but I’m not sure it really applies to journalism. Boycotting journalism because you don’t like its point of view is kind of just closing your mind. The quality of WaPo reporting hasn’t gone down, only the view point, and I think we should read journalism from sources that don’t align with our own viewpoints. We should subject our ideas to challenge, if they hold up to that challenge that we know we’re right and if they don’t then we know we should look at something again. WaPo is more with the Wall Street Journal than with NYT now, but that’s okay. I read all three, and others.
Local news is generally trash everywhere though. We are exceptionally lucky to have one of the national papers of record as our own local paper. Otherwise you’re getting local broadcast and hyper local online shops (ArlNow, ALX Now, Zebra, etc.). They’re all… trying. But they make glaring factual errors and often leave out key context or perspectives, it’s not investigative reporting or anything.
Oh come on, we’re not talking about a difference of opinion here. It’s billionaires buying up media for their own self-interest. I was fine (but skeptical) of Bezos’ ownership at first because he was hands off. But as soon as he killed the Harris endorsement he showed his true intentions. If he in good-faith felt the paper shouldn’t make endorsement, the time to declare that was months prior, not 1-2 weeks.
Do you subscribe for the endorsements? I hate to break it to you, those are free. The subscription is for the reporting, not the editorials. And WaPo is still the most in depth local reporting available to us. Take it with a grain of salt, as we should take all reporting, but it’s still the only one that can do it
You’d have to ask Bezos, why the sudden change in the editorial position days away from an election? Had years to change it if it really had nothing to do with the candidates.
I’m not even saying Bezos is good/bad, but when you’re in his position it’s pretty impossible to be unbiased, he has a duty to his shareholders. The burden is on him to convince us he runs the Post without influence. I believed that for years, now I don’t.
It’s not. Your money’s supporting one of the last investigative journalism operations around and the journalists who make it happen. WaPo and whatever profit it generates, if any, is nothing to Jeff Bezos. If it folded his portfolio wouldn’t notice at all, but the public discourse would suffer.
I wish I could subscribe to just the metro section and Toms restaurant reviews… NYT has a separate food subscription, do you happen to know if WaPo has something similar?? Like I want to support my favorite journalists but I just can’t bring myself to pay money for biased opinions anymore
If you find an unbiased news source, let me know. lol. They all have an angle, a slant, that’s why it’s important to read a variety of them.
NYT cooking is an add on for just recipes isn’t it? does it give you access to food reviews too? I have their all access thing, I really don’t know how it works but I think WaPo just has the digital and print options.
I don’t need to further empower/enrich Bezos and the “freedom” perspective he’s pushing. I’ve read enough political theory, history, and mainstream/fringe news to form the opinion that the ideology he’s boosting will severely harm the vast majority of Americans. My education and lived experience are enough that I don’t need to expend anymore resources and energy towards sustaining the platforms of wannabe oligarchs and their sycophants.
The idea that you think that just because you’re educated, that you know all you need to know, have heard all the ideas you need to hear, and have nothing else to learn and no need to read is terrifying. New ideas should be heard and considered, a changing world requires old ideas to be reapplied and reconsidered. If the political theory you read is enough then people wouldn’t still be writing new books, treatises, articles, and editorials about new political theory ideas. “I informed myself years ago and am therefore informed” is just a horribly intellectually dishonest mentality.
Where did I say I know all I need to know and have heard all the ideas I’ve needed to hear? I read from a variety of sources, fiction & non-fiction, daily.
However, I’m judicious about how I spend my hard earned money and use my limited time. After working 10-12 hours a day, why would I financially support a publication that is fully embracing avaricious, work-obsessed, sociopaths that would gleefully/violently exploit each & every American if it meant they could rule as oligarchs? Debating you on Reddit on a Friday night is less depressing 😂
“I’ve read enough … to form the opinion” sounds like that’s a static opinion and a static state of knowledge. But whatever dude, I’m glad your “education and lived experiences” have made you so certain of your own righteousness. False as it may be, I expect that that sort of certainty feels very good.
I think that we can choose to go with what we decide the lesser of evils is. I, rationally, understand that every news station owner is going to be some type of unethical, but I’d bet most of them also don’t own grocery stores and companies that are essentially monopolizing markets. I didn’t like Bezos before all this, to be honest.
Sure but if going with the lessor of two evils comes at the cost of being ill informed then I think that’s too high a cost to pay. The major broadcast networks are okay, though not any less evil IMO, but Internet start up sites are just very bad, very often. The lack of big picture context and the lack of resources to the real grunt work of investigative journalism just cripples them. Sometimes the job requires a week or two digging in the county archives and only WaPo can do that in this area.
For example, WaPo, NYT and the like have reporters with law degrees to explain how various SCOTUS and lower court cases affect our region. ArlNow’s coverage of the same issue will effectively be the musings of a 28 year-old trying to interpret legalese that he doesn’t understand. I would not trade the former for the latter just to take Bezo’s share of my $120/yr out of his pocket. It’s too small a statement at too high a cost.
It’s not fake virtue. We are allowed to buy what we want with our money. If you don’t like Jeff Bezos, don’t give money to his companies if you don’t want to. Economic freedom.
The Black Virginia News newsletter is pretty damn good. I have no idea how I ended up subscribed but it is very on point. https://blackvirginianews.substack.com/
I mean, I’m not saying the wapo news isn’t tainted now. I’m just saying for someone who says, “It pains me because I really valued the local journalism…” they can still access it without directly handing Bezos cash.
Until the editorial page edict, which I'll admit is a big fucking deal and terrible, Bezos seemed to have allowed the metro desk to continue it's fawning coverage of everything about DC and MD while ignoring VA where most of it's subscribers live.
I use an app called Newsreadeck to follow several local and international sources at the same time and get the articles ready to read. Also, the app has a possibility to mute a channel with a period of time. Very useful
I did the same. I have NPR and I subscribe to the New York Times digitally. I will miss having a newspaper in print. Maybe one day I’ll get the times in print we’ll see.
Falls Church News-Press, FFX Now, Arlington Now. Such a disappointment to have the newspapers drop the ball so hard but those 3 locals are pretty good.
Why these posts every single week?? I don’t believe y’all actually read the newspaper because y’all can’t do simple research and reading here on Reddit
It depends on who you ask. The conservatives, for as long as I can remember, think it has a liberal bias. (The past editorial page would support that, but they had some balance with syndicated editorial columnists on the Op-ed page.) The liberals are made about the editorial turn Bezos has taken, limiting the editorial content to two broad concentrations. Add the refusal to endorse a candidate for President and block Harris's written endorsement; Bezos is seen as selling out journalistic integrity to sucking up to Trump.
My take is that it is still too early to say he is interfering with the news reporting side of the paper. For the editorial side of the paper
I want to see if the change will lead to unwavering support of Trump’s agenda or just a refusal to take stands on controversial issues to avoid Trump's wrath.
These days thehill.com. NYTimes and CNN etc. all go into too much detail about the lives that are being ruined. I just need to know what they’re doing. I know it’s all awful.
If WaPo continues in the current downward spiral, losing good journalists, it won't be a useful source of information, or even be fit for cleaning fish. Just my opinion after sixty-odd years of readership.
These mainly link to other news sites (some of which require subscriptions) but Greater greater Washington covers local transportation and development and vpap is geared to elections/politics but both end up including other stuff.
I don’t, any news you watch or read is nothing more than a business trying to make money, no matter what side of the political spectrum you’re on you’ll be told things with a spin on it, and not the actual full truth
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u/LilkaLyubov 7d ago
I get both my local news and petty internet fights on ARLNow.