To put it mildly, sympathy was in short supply on social media for the more than 300 journalists laid off by The Washington Post on Wednesday. For many critics, the cuts felt less like a tragedy than a reckoning that has been decades in the making, driven by slanted coverage and editorial missteps at what was once a great newspaper. The Post reportedly lost $100 million in 2024, following a $77 million loss the year before. The layoffs affected roughly a third of its newsroom, and underscored just how far the institution has fallen.
Having spent years pushing the Russian collusion hoax — coverage rewarded with a Pulitzer — and dutifully promoting every anti-Trump narrative since, the capital’s flagship publication abandoned reporting in favor of trying to shape the news.
Within hours of President Donald Trump’s first inauguration, this venerable newspaper published a story titled, The campaign to impeach President Trump has begun. The following month, it adopted a new slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
So, it’s understandable that since news of the layoffs broke, social media users have shown no mercy, mocking the fired writers into oblivion.
Following the layoffs, many former employees took to Twitter to lament the loss of their jobs.
Akilah Johnson wrote that she’d been hired by The Post in 2021 “to cover health disparities & explore the way racism & social inequality affects health. 4 months ago, I became the generations’ reporter exploring how health is experienced by different pple across the life course. Today, I was laid off.”
A sympathetic figure? Her post goes a long way toward explaining how the legacy media giant managed to lose $100 million in a single year. Not only were users unmoved by her words, but her post was also widely mistaken for parody.
Her bio reads like parody. It says she joined The Post in 2021 “as a national reporter exploring the effect of racism and social inequality on health. In prior roles at ProPublica and the Boston Globe, she covered the intersection of health, race, politics, and immigration.”
Seth Dillon, CEO of satire website The Babylon Bee, appealed to those who had just been let go, encouraging them to send an application: “We are seeking applicants experienced in writing fictional content presented in the tone and style of a legitimate news organization.”
On Facebook, conservative influencer Matt Walsh openly ridiculed the laid-off workers. He wrote:
I was hired by the Washington Post in 2019 to cover the way racism in the healthcare industry impacts gay aborigine midgets with cardiovascular disease. Today I was laid off. I worked incredibly hard over the past 7 years to produce no less than 4 articles on this important subject. I was only paid $650,000 a year for my tireless efforts. Now I’m out of a job. I can’t believe this has happened to me.
One reader humorously responded, “Like they say in Minnesota, You live. You lear.”
Another replied, “Sounds like the next big opportunity is owning a Hospice in L.A.”
Here are some additional responses:
None of this is cause for celebration, but it does help explain the reaction. When an institution spends decades lying to the public, shaping false narratives, and mistaking ideology for journalism, it shouldn’t be surprised when goodwill evaporates.
What played out online was less cruelty than a blunt verdict: credibility, once lost, is expensive to buy back — and no newsroom, no matter how elite or storied, is immune from the consequences.
Elizabeth writes commentary for Legal Insurrection and The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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