Mass Media Shifting to Transparency

As might be expected, nowhere in the recent AFP report is there any acknowledgement of the actual reason why the Washington Post has cut 300 journalists from its staff (The Mercury, February 9).

The Post’s culling of staff matches that of the New York Times and the LA Times. Last year the new majority owner of the LA Times, Patrick Soon Shiong, laid down a new editorial guideline: the paper had to provide balanced perspectives instead of being just a Democrat views sheet.

Quiet shifts in media that have been conspicuously one-sided in their reporting and airing of views, have occurred in Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta. He named former Trump employee, Dina McCormick, the new president of Meta. Tik Tok, now run by Trump supporter Larry Ellison, is another platform no longer slavishly compliant with globalist propaganda.

CBS Evening News ratings have soared since the appointment of Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief. She is pro-Israel and rejects the ideologies of the Far left. Also assisting in ending the hitherto blatant leftwing bias of the mass media is the Federal Commission on Communication. It requires late night talk shows to provide equal time for spokesmen from both major political parties.

Readership losses incurred by newspapers like the NYT and the Post have been blamed on the internet and social media. But the real reason is that millions have woken up to the fact that the mainstream media publish fake news and jaundiced views while deliberately omitting or distorting developments that deviate from their narratives. As a result, subscriptions and viewership numbers have slumped and continue to do so.

Unfortunately transparency is dying in the Orwellian EU. It is applying censorship to all posts and messages that challenge its narratives and criminalising defaulters.

Nonetheless, as observed last month, developments in 2026 are widening the Overton Window on discourse. Having recognized that reality, the Washington Post should change its masthead slogan from ‘democracy dies in darkness’ to ‘democracy thrives in transparency.’