Washington Post Ratings and Reviews

The Big Picture

My husband and I live in Nebraska. We actually have two homes, a shouse in northeast Nebraska and a home in Lincoln. It has given us both great anxiety in recent years to see what has happened to our democracy. My grandfather immigrated from Sweden. He deeply treasured the opportunities that were afforded to him and other family members when they came to the United States. He prided himself on being politically astute. That desire to know what is happening in our beloved country and to participate in the political process was passed on to his family. My husband and I were Peace Corps volunteers in the 60’s and we lived and worked in 6 other countries. We have been proud to be citizens of the United States. We have great difficulty understanding the behavior of a significant number of our present day politicians. In spite of all this, we strive to stay informed about our country now and about what may happen in the not so distant future. We greatly appreciate the work of the Washington Post to keep us informed about the State of our Nation! Thank you!

More Left Leaning than Centrist. Disappointing.

The other day I noticed on a couple media bias graphs that the WP was dead center with the highest amount of original content. As someone who doesn’t fit in either political party I have been longing for a news source that works hard to see both sides, like I do. So, when I saw the graphs I decided to order a subscription at a promo price that seemed generous. The first two days I read as much as I could and seemed to be getting what I had hoped for. Then yesterday I opened the app and was dismayed at what I saw yesterday. Four out of the six featured pieces were obviously left leaning on the issues of state rights, abortion, and the use of presidential power (9/5/21). Were the other two right leaning to at least attempt to give a little balance? No, they were not. They were about items that didn’t have a political impact.
I’m going to give the Post a couple more weeks to try to prove me wrong on this, but I’m not all that hopeful. Has the news media swung so far left in general that the Post just looks centrist by comparison?

I love the way the app is arranged. But I do have a complaint about the search feature. I searched for articles on Indonesia and got several hits from a couple of weeks ago. When I attempted to click on the links the only place they sent me was back to the front page of the current day.

Overall good, but...

I’ve been using this app on both iPhone and iPad and it continues too a good way too navigate and read the paper on these devices. One thing has changed with the latest update. Previously, when opening articles from the WaPo email news digest I receive several times a day, it would open them in the browser and not the app, which was fine. The browser would have the little arrow in the upper left corner to get back to the email app to continue going through the list of articles. Now when clicking on a link in the email WaPo digest, it opens the browser and from the browser offers to view the article in the app. After clicking to open the app, the return arrow lead back to the browser, not the email app. There is an unneeded clunky browser step in the middle. A fix to the app to allow moving back and forth between the email digest and the app would be a great feature in an upcoming release (which would make it operate as seamlessly as The NY Times app). Also when clicking on a link in the email digest when there are no open windows already open, it often jumps to the browser but then nothing happens.

Also, oddly, from scrolling through the reviews, I appears the vast majority are about the WaPo itself and have nothing to do with the actual WaPo app.

My search for truth

I don’t walk around in the daylight with a lit lamp but like Diogenes I always seem to be searching for an honest man in my everyday life and in the media.
I subscribe to WAPO because it more often than not holds a reasonable attitude and attempts to maintain a democratic humanistic position when reporting on world events. Unfortunately, like all the media of today it struggles to pry attention away from the melee of social media and in doing so falls prey to the hunger for attention it like others in major media considers it needs and in so doing will attempt to use sensationalism.
One clear criticism I hold is the unbalanced treatment given to the Hamas terrorists who knowingly use its citizens as political hostages, pawns, and martyrs in order to garner world wide sympathy in their over reaching propaganda war. Not clearly exposing Hamas’ admitted tactics in a very clear way with the appropriate horror and sustain in order to pander to uneducated and I’ll informed students is unwelcome and unworthy. I strongly urge you to not only step away from sensationalism but to make ridicule of it and actively wage war against it.
Make that your platform with all the righteous passionate driven purpose you can. Your strength can be in is in the truth the WAPO lantern can provide.
Shine brightly.

Best of the three Post apps

This is the best of the three apps that the Washington Post has out there. The print version is exactly what it sounds like; nothing wrong with it, but I get tired of zooming in and having to find the continuation of the article. The newest app has a slick design, so it looks very current, but it is terrible to use. This app is the ‘middle’ one; it is a continuation of the first digital-native app they came up with, and although it isn’t super pretty, it has a nice display of multiple articles, so you can decide what you want to read rather than having one particular article pushed on you. The articles read cleanly, and the graphics are well incorporated. Major problems with it include the fact that even for subscribers some of the advertising — especially in videos — is intrusive, links sometimes connect to paywalled content, and, most importantly, if you are mid-article and leave the app, when you restart it, it resets to the front page. Sometimes it can be quite difficult to relocate the article that you were reading previously. Better reading apps (Kindle, Apple Books, etc.) reopen to what you were previously reading and give you the choice when you want to return to the top-level directory.

Slanted Washington Post

When I was growing up in Washington DC, Northern Virginia my father was a great reporter who was well respected. He wanted me to read the Washington Post which I started to do at a young age. At this time the paper appeared to be a good place for learning the news. He stated that it was overall unbiased and had good information and reporters. I grew to enjoy reading the paper in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Trouble with the paper is it’s honestly a slanted paper. Constantly attacking Trump and not doing any substantive stories about Biden and his apparent incompetence and probable criminal if not treasonous activities with a possible pay to play enterprise. If Trump has done immoral or illegal things then yes the truth should be revealed. The same is true with the Biden’s and the Clinton’s. This was the newspaper who exposed Watergate but won’t look into the Clinton’s or Biden’s alleged involvement in probable criminal enterprises. My father was a hard nosed fair and honest reporter who went with the truth no matter who was involved. He taught me to look at things impartially. This helped me greatly in my professional careers. The only reason I still subscribe to the paper is to read about Washington area sports. The rest of the paper is only worthy of lining the bottom of a bird cage. Sad a once great paper is now pretty much a worthless shell of its former self.

A Forgetful App

I subscribe to both The NY Times and the Washington Post. It’s interesting to compare how the two papers use mobile apps to present their content. Each has its advantages, but I find that the Washington Post Classic app has a couple of significant deficiencies. On the plus side, the Washington Post is a more visually appealing and less cluttered presentation compared to the NY Times. But there are two behaviors that I find limit the usefulness of the Washington Post Classic app. First is the fact that it does not give any indication of stories that have already been read. The NY Times app, for example, dims to a fainter gray the headline text of stories that have been opened. Second, and most infuriating, is that the Washington Post Classic app seems incapable of remembering the reader’s position within the app. Leave the app to read a text message? When you return to the Washington Post app you’ll be returned to the story you were reading, but once leaving that you’re back at the top of the story list and forced to scroll and scroll to re-find where you were. This often happens even when you haven’t left the app at all and simply close a story. (Note that I’m using a current generation iPad Pro.)

Keep Up The Good Work‼️

Democracy dies in darkness is a phrase all your readers count on the Washington Post upholding. So far, so good! Please don't let up. There is still more investigative reporting that needs to be done because, unfortunately, there aren't enough newspapers to assist the Post & the NY Times.
Please continue to keep the high journalist standards without being “handwring liberals” in continuing to cover Trump. Between the election & the court cases, I think the Post does a good job in the Trump coverage and summary of the status of the cases but you still need to call a spade a spade i.e. When Trump says “off-colored” &/or “total incoherent statements” they need to be given proper in-depth coverage. The New York times does a better job of that type of reporting, I think.
Politics & the Federal Government by the Post is the best in the country by far. While the Washington Post is not perfect, given the human condition, the Washington Post is still my favorite newspaper & has been for the last 50 years. Thank you for your service, one & all.

Always Top Notch

I grew up in DC in the 60s and the Post was always on our family’s stoop despite little money to spare. My mother said it was important to be aware of the world around us and since there were six of us, it was a bargain. Like most of us, the Post has had its up and downs, but it always strives for excellence. Journalism is a tough business, especially with the multitude of social media options. Along with the NYT and the Boston Globe, it is my go to for honest reporting—-they endeavor to separate fact from fiction.

One thing—-I am really torn by the Post’s scoop on Jack Teixerira’s horrendous distribution of top secret documents. On the one hand, I am fairly certain the Post helped pave the way to JT’s arrest, but I struggle with whether or not they had to reveal all the documents that had to do with national security. I know, I know, citizens need to know what our government is up to. But…Loose lips sink ships? For me the bigger story is how in the world did a slimy punk get his hands on this info and what are we going to do about it?

Video ads

For the last week, I have been plagued with a video ad for a personnel service that begins talking shortly after I start reading an article. I can't find any way to turn it off and it is irritating and intrusive. Am getting to the point of cancelling my subscription if it doesn't stop.
Update, it is now broadcasting this same talking ad every single time I try to read an article. I am regretfully canceling my subscription. I will check back in a couple months to see if this has been fixed, but for now, can't stand it.
Another update. I did cancel, but like the post so much, I regretted it and renewed the next day. Now I am canceling again. Every single time I tap on an article to read it, a voice blares, “For the past 25 years, PNP personnel services...” I did write to the help desk, and got back an email that did not resolve the problem.
Nobody else has complained about this, which leaves me wondering why I have been so blessed with the attentions of PNP personnel services. I’ve tried easy solutions, but no setting addresses it. If anybody has any ideas, I’d be happy to try them. I love the Post, but have come to hate PNP personnel services more.

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