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One might expect after this level of embarrassment for the Washington Post the adults would take action.

On Saturday I detailed an array of deeply problematic issues at the esteemed publication out of the nation’s capital. In just the ensuing two days, the Washington Post has managed to not only extend the issues, but it has added to the list.

Where to even start. Well, how about with a fresh fiasco? Late on Friday, there was a piece produced by writer Lori Rosza that was about Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis. That is, it was all about what DeSantis could be scorched over. In what can only be described as a hit piece, Rosza’s article, though couched as a missive on transgender health support, was little more than a laundry list of gripes concerning the governor. 

But in what is becoming an all-too-familiar move, the piece had to have an editor step in. One of the most popular bylines at The Post of late has been Correction. In this instance, two main details in the article had to be fixed, including the central topic of the piece.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the size of Florida’s budget is $101.5 billion. It is $109.9 billion. That version also incorrectly stated that Gov. DeSantis was considering banning transgender people from all Medicaid services; the proposal would ban gender affirming procedures from state Medicaid coverage. The story has been corrected.

Except those were far from the only problems. Desantis has a pitbull of a press secretary, Christina Pushaw, and she has a list of issues with the facts which were on display in this work. The funding veto on the Tampa baseball team, the Special Olympics vaccine passport issue, and the claim he had not commented on the Texas shooting were all called out by Pushaw.

Yet the paper only addressed a pair of the items for correction, and only after being supplied with the details from Pushaw.

But this is only the latest. In two ongoing melodramatics, the paper continues to drape itself with infantilism. 

The latest Taylor Lorenz sagging saga continued. After the writer was called out for falsifying details in her piece, it led to the editors stealth-editing the piece. Then, when confronted, a formal correction was made, which later required a second, lengthier correction. Even now, some of the issues are said to remain incorrect.

This episode became so imbalanced that the normally media-sympathetic team of Brian Stelter and Oliver Darcy had to weigh in on the matter. Lorenz made the farcical claim that the error had not been put in place by her, and the ensuing controversy was a result of conservatives acting in bad faith.

So her editors AND conservatives are to blame?? Then Lorenz lashed out at Darcy, prompting Stelter to rise to his defense. By the end of it all, Taylor went to the length of locking down her account, after bleating about the fact that she was being attacked by those pointing out her errors.

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And that was not all. The infantile developments surrounding writer Dave Weigel not only were still ongoing, but the idiocy was spreading. Recall now, this all developed because Dave had the temerity to retweet a joke that someone else had posted. That led to writer Felicia Sonmez complaining to management – but on Twitter – and then she spent the weekend declaring herself to be under attack.

Another Post writer, Jose Del Real, attempted to step in and bring calm to the proceedings. For his level-headed call for peace and the request that Sonmez take her issue to management instead of a public forum, Sonmez declared that she had been attacked, and continued bleating on Twitter. This only provoked people to respond, leading to more claims of victimhood.

Finally, executive editor Sarah Buzbee was forced to issue an email, pleading for all staffers to behave and act like adults.

Her plea fell on blind eyes, as Felicia only continued her tirade. Del Real was compelled to back off entirely at that stage and locked his account, and then Sonmez became intemperate when she noticed he had blocked her, after her hysterical accusations. Then this morning, more staffers joined in on the hectoring of Weigel, and now the latest has unfolded.

As of this afternoon, Dave Weigel has been suspended without pay, for the crime of retweeting someone’s off-color joke, and rather rapidly deleting it and apologizing. 

So here we have the Washington Post sitting on repeated examples of Taylor Lorenz resorting to fabulism, and you have another writer violating business protocols by airing internal company grievances in public, along with a string of recent articles with glaring journalistic problems, but the only thing the publishers and editors take action on was somebody who retweeted a joke.

Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham must be grateful to be free from the responsibility of this ship of fools.

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