UNDERNEWS: Media

July 28, 2025

Media

Matt Tabbi - Over the weekend it was announced that a gaggle of well-known Washington Post opinion-makers, from Philip Bump to Jonathan Capehart to Catherine Rampe to Karen Attiah, were taking buyout offers from Jeff Bezos and the Post, amid news of a 250,000 plunge in subscriptions. This comes on the heels of the recent firing of CBS icon Stephen Colbert, the vote to defund NPR, and previous overhauls at MSNBC (which let go most of Rachel Maddow’s staff as well as canceling The ReidOut), CNN (which let go 6% of its workforce in January), and ABC (which shuttered 538.com and laid off 75 employees in March), to say nothing of recent staff reductions at Vox Media, HuffPost, and other companies.

The Conventional Wisdom machine is coming apart in chunks.

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ABOUT THE EDITOR

The Review is edited by Sam Smith, who covered Washington under nine presidents, has edited the Progressive Review and its predecessors since 1964, wrote four books, been published in five anthologies, helped to start five organizations (including the DC Humanities Council and the DC Statehood Party), was a plaintiff in three successful class action suits, served as a Coast Guard officer, and played in jazz bands for four decades.

A truly independent journalist with his feet firmly grounded in the reality of neighborhoods and everyday people. -- Patrick Mazza, Progressive Populist

A truly original voice in American journalism: humorous and plain spoken and filled with common sense -- Jay Walljasper, Utne Reader

Inimitable -- Mother Jones Magazine

Sam's a cynical cat -- Marion Barry

Sam's one of the few independent voices left. The press today is either extreme or special interest or else just establishment, an extension of the corporate spirit -- Sen. Eugene McCarthy,

One of a small group of whites with whom many blacks would trust their political lives - Chuck Stone, Washingtonian.

A reputation for wit, intelligence and anger. -- Claude Lewis, Chicago Tribune

Smith is an island of reason and information in a sea of narcissistic blather. -- City Paper, Washington

Whatever the debate, the Review's sharp critiques encourage us to look out our window, notice and act upon what we see, and also to look further -- to the rest of the country and globe -- to see how the organized big world interacts with our more spontaneous small worlds. - Utne Reader