The Washington Post Implodes

Apparently, the subliterate world has been transfixed by the courtroom drama involving one Johnny Depp and one Amber Heard. For the record, I did not see any of it. I do not care.

Also for the record, Heard was found liable for defaming Depp and Depp was found liable, to a largely symbolic amount, for defaming Heard.

Now, all reports suggest that the two deserved each other. All reports also suggest that Heard gave as good as she got. For what it’s worth, the supposed abuse was not one-sided. And, I do recall an expert on CNN suggesting that Heard’s explosive testimony was a lie. 

In the meantime, everyone is puzzled by the fact that so many people have sided with Depp. After all, codes of gentlemanly behavior are quite clear-- a man should never hit a woman, under any circumstances. Apparently, we need to return to codes of gentlemanly behavior.

At the same time, one may observe, as a quirk of human nature, that male serial killers-- to take an extreme case-- often attract a bevy of comely groupies. Male homicidal maniacs seem to incite something deep in the female soul. I will not ponder the issue further. And one must also point out that women who are seen to be crazy repel nearly all men. One suspects that, as a result of the Depp defamation trial, Johnny Depp will move on, but that Amber Heard will not have too many more dates.

Anyway, if we were trying to make some sense out of all of this-- a daunting and thankless task-- we would have to point out that a brawl between spouses is one thing. Making it all public by publishing an article defaming one’s spouse is quite another.

In the world of the law, truth seems to be a reasonable defense against libel and slander and defamation. Don’t take my word for it, however. In the rest of the world, truth takes second place to another consideration.

One recalls a Malcolm Gladwell discussion in his book, Talking to Strangers. Incidentally, it’s an excellent book. In it Gladwell tries to explain why an intelligence agency, setting off in search of a mole, ignored a multitude of lies offered by one member of the team during an investigative interview. How did it happen that these seasoned intelligence officers missed the truth?

Gladwell responds that the default position for human beings is group solidarity and social cohesion, and that these supersede one's love of the truth. I will say that I agree. Heard’s claims were dismissed because her defamatory Washington Post article contributed, even if in a rather small way, to the constant conflict between men and women in this country. And she is responsible for making it all into a public spectacle. People were transfixed, but they were apparently not happy for being transfixed. Besides, Depp may have been a crazy drunk. But, Heard was a model of indiscretion.

One gets the impression that men and women are at each others’ throats, in the home, in the workplace, and even in the Washington Post.

Excuse this lengthy preamble, to today’s amazing instance of feminist mismanagement. It concerns the Washington Post, and one Dave Weigel. You will recall, from a prior post, that Weigel fell afoul of the Post’s resident humorless scold, one Felicia Sonmez, over a tweet that he retweeted. For your recollection, the tweet said: "Every girl is bi. You just have to figure out whether it’s polar or sexual.”

You will notice that the tweet did not in any way address Sonmez herself. It did not matter. Speaking for all women, and fully engaged in her revolutionary war against white male patriarchy, Sonmez rose up in the highest dudgeon and demanded an apology. 

She got her apology, of course, but that was not the end of the story. Having sowed discontent and dissension in the Post newsroom, the story then arrived at the desk of executive editor, Sally Buzbee. The inept and inapt Buzbee issued a milquetoast statement about a kinder and gentler newsroom. She then proceeded to suspend Weigel for a month, without pay.

So, Sonmez got her scalp, and the Washington Post will now go down as another front in the war against men. And Buzbee will go down as an inept executive, one who would have trouble herding cats-- which is apparently what running the Post newsroom involves. 

Since the point, after all, is for men and women to work together efficiently and effectively in a newsroom, suspending Weigel could not have advanced the cause. It could only have produced more animosity and antagonism between men and women, thus instigating the hostile work environment that the Post editor thought she was countering by suspending Weigel. Tell me whether you now want to hire more feminists to work for you?

Now, for a succinct commentary on this circus-like drama, we turn to the twitter feed of one Glenn Greenwald.

He grasps the patent absurdity of it all.

So typical: WP reporter @feliciasonmez is now on her 3rd straight day of publicly bashing her own colleagues. She pressured the Post to publicly malign @daveweigel as "reprehensible", forced him to repeatedly apologize, now is attacking another WP reporter for politely objecting.

Of course, Sonmez imagined that she was fighting the good fight against sexism. She was actually living out a rebellion narrative where she was in the vanguard of a revolution against white patriarchy. 

It is, to say the least, pathetic. Certainly, it is going to damage her reputation, such as it is. Greenwald remarks:

A gigantic amount of the time and energy of privileged employees at the largest and most powerful media corporations is devoted to concocting melodramatic, self-absorbed narratives where they cast themselves as marginalized victim, while real journalists confront real persecution

Weekend drama at Robin D'Angelo Junior High — also known as the national desk of The Washington Post — gets better and better with each new melodramatic claim of victimhood, bitter public infighting among colleagues, and the race to see who ends up with most oppression points.

If you're unemployed, a journalist facing prison or exile, or working in a de-industrialized town with no health care benefits and drowning in fentanyl ODs, spare some thoughts for the Real Victims: front page reporters at The WashPost enduring mean tweets from random critics.

And then, one male in the newsroom dared speak out for Weigel. He was Jose del Real. Naturally, Sonmez attacked him for being a patriarchal sexist oppressor.

To which, Greenwald:

After WPost reporter @Feliciasonmez publicly accused multiple Post reporters and editors — including @jdelreal — of supporting misogyny against her, Del Real retorted that he was the only Mexican American on the national desk and also gay. Experts are tabulating the outcome.

(I should say: the most honorable participant in this was Del Real, who simply rose to suggest to Sonmez that perhaps publicly bashing colleagues, trying to get them fired and inciting hate mobs against them is childish and petty. He was predictably accused of misogyny for it).

Greenwald concludes that these people, acting like children in a playground, think that they alone are the arbiters of what is true and what is misinformation:

Last point: please remember these are the same people who insist that only they are responsible enough to be trusted with delivering the news and decreeing what is true and false, and that the peasant class must be censored.

Decide for yourself if they've earned this status.