This week on A Couple Thinks, we found ourselves talking about something that feels both personal and civic: the unraveling of one of America’s most important newspapers.
Lisa was in her last two years of high school in the DC suburbs in the late ’70s, when the Washington Post was the local paper and a powerhouse investigative paper. It covered local school boards and sports scores alongside national politics, and it still carried the gravitas of its Watergate reporting. The Post showed what was possible when local knowledge, national power, and serious investigative journalism lived under the same roof.
Fast forward to the present, and that legacy feels painfully fragile.
In this episode, we talk through why the Post’s recent layoffs, leadership failures, and editorial decisions feel like more than just internal drama. When subscriptions were canceled after the paper pulled its presidential endorsement and declined to run Ann Telnaes’ cartoon, it wasn’t about partisan loyalty, it was about trust. And last week when the paper began shedding reporters, editors, and entire sections, the cost wasn’t just financial. It was civic.
Aaron reflects on reporting that only fairly recently set the standard with innovative timelines, visual explainers, and deeply sourced investigations like the January 6th reconstruction. We also discuss why losing international reporters weakens local and national coverage alike, and why stories like Watergate—originally a local break-in—might never surface without strong metro reporting.
We compare the Post’s decline to institutions like the New York Times, and to magazines like The Atlantic. And yes, we wrestle with the uncomfortable reality of billionaire ownership, including Jeff Bezos’s role and the unanswered questions about power, pressure, and responsibility.
Still, this episode isn’t just a post-mortem. It’s a reminder.
A free press isn’t a luxury. It’s infrastructure.
Our founders understood that. The First Amendment exists for a reason. And in a moment when newspapers are folding, local reporting is vanishing, and public trust is being actively undermined, supporting serious journalism may be one of the most meaningful acts available to us.
We also share concrete actions you can take this week, from calling your representatives using Five Calls, to supporting pro-democracy efforts, to voting with your wallet by subscribing to outlets doing the hard, unglamorous work of truth-finding. And, as always, we close with joyful moments—because connection, beauty, and community are part of resistance too.
🎧 Listen to the full episode of A Couple Thinks wherever you get your podcasts.If this conversation resonates, share it, rate the show, or send us a note at hello@acouplethinks.com. You can also help shape future episodes by filling out our listener survey at survey.acouplethinks.com.
Reliable journalism doesn’t survive on vibes alone. It survives because people decide it matters.
And we think it still does.
p.s. Here are some of the articles and “love letters” to the Washington Post that we used as source materials:
The Murder of the Washington Post by Ashley Parker
An Elegy for My Washington Post by Carlos Lozada
‘Washington Post’ CEO departs after going AWOL during massive job cuts by David Folkenflik
