Washington Post — Bunk History

Jeff Bezos against a red D.C. background with the Washington Post newspaper on the bottom half

Is Jeff Bezos Selling Out the Washington Post?

The Amazon founder was once the newspaper’s savior; now journalists are fleeing as the paper that brought down Nixon struggles under Trump’s second term.

by Clare Malone via The New Yorker on May 12, 2025

Front page of the Washington Post above the fold.

The Real Story of the Washington Post’s Editorial Independence

When the Kamala Harris endorsement was spiked, the publisher cited tradition. A closer reading of history tells a different story.

by Steven Mufson via Columbia Journalism Review on February 25, 2025

1973 Time magazine article entitled "The Watergate Three" with a photo of Woodward, Bernstein, and Sussman.

All the Newsroom’s Men

How one-third of “The Watergate Three” got written out of journalism history.

by Joshua Benton via Nieman Lab on June 7, 2022

A hallway in the Greenbriar bunker, lined with steel and cement walls

The Town That Kept Its Nuclear Bunker a Secret for Three Decades

The people of White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, helped keep the Greenbrier resort's bunker—designed to hold the entirety of Congress—hidden for 30 years.

by Emily Matchar via Smithsonian on April 9, 2024

Kara Swisher wearing headphones and writing in a notebook near a computer.

Over Three Decades, Tech Obliterated Media

A front-row seat to a slow-moving catastrophe. How tech both helps and hurts our world.

by Kara Swisher via Intelligencer on February 7, 2024

An 1878 trademark registration for Miasmine, an ineffective anti-malaria medicine. (Library of Congress)

In the 1880s, D.C.’s Doctors Argued About Malaria and Its Cause

Malaria — literally, if not scientifically, "bad air" — once claimed Washingtonians by the score. So why did some doctors believe it wasn't real?

by John F. Kelly via Washington Post on August 6, 2022

More Than 1,700 Congressmen Once Enslaved Black People. This is Who They Were.

The Washington Post has compiled the first database of slaveholding members of Congress by examining thousands of census records and historical documents.

by Julie Zauzmer Weil, Adrian Blanco, Leo Dominguez via Washington Post on January 10, 2022

The Deadly Race Riot ‘Aided and Abetted’ by the Washington Post a Century Ago

A front-page article helped incite the violence in the nation’s capital that left as many as 39 dead.

by Gillian Brockell via Retropolis on July 15, 2019

Does Journalism Have a Future?

In an era of social media and fake news, journalists who have survived the print plunge have new foes to face.

by Jill Lepore via The New Yorker on January 22, 2019

What the Press and 'The Post' Missed

Leslie Gelb supervised the team that compiled the Pentagon Papers. He explains what Steven Spielberg's new film gets wrong.

by Brooke Gladstone, Leslie Gelb via WNYC on January 12, 2018

Simeon Booker, Intrepid Chronicler of Civil Rights Struggle for Jet and Ebony, Dies at 99

He risked his life to expose Emmett Till’s death and the Freedom Rides to a national audience.

by Emily Langer via Washington Post on December 10, 2017

The Myth of the Media's Role in Watergate

Journalists' role in uncovering the scandal may not have been as significant as we think.

by Mark Feldstein via HNN on August 30, 2004

Daniel Ellsberg at podium with group in front of U.S. Court House

Daniel Ellsberg Leaked His Vietnam Secrets To Senators First. They Balked.

Before going to the press, Ellsberg spent a year and a half quietly leaking the Pentagon Papers to leading antiwar lawmakers. They all declined to speak out.

by Erick Trickey via Retropolis on June 23, 2023

Soldiers looking out of helicopter near Kabul, Afghanistan

A 20-Year Debacle in Afghanistan

Why the American war was destined for catastrophe and tragedy from the start.

by Charlie Savage via The Nation on March 21, 2022

An old black and white photo at a dinner event

The History of American Newspapers is More Searchable Than Ever

A stroll through the archives of Editor & Publisher shows an industry with moments of glory and shame — and evidence that not all of today's problems are new.

by Joshua Benton via Nieman Lab on February 2, 2021

Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir during an interview for CBS, November 11, 1973.

US Media Talks a Lot About Palestinians — Just Without Palestinians

Although major U.S. newspapers hosted thousands of opinion pieces on Israel-Palestine over 50 years, hardly any were actually written by Palestinians.

by Maha Nassar via +972 Magazine on October 2, 2020

One Hundred Years Ago, a Four-Day Race Riot Engulfed Washingon D.C.

Rumors ran wild as white mobs assaulted black residents who in turn fought back, refusing to be intimidated.

by Patrick Sauer via Smithsonian on July 17, 2019

Where Does Truth Fit into Democracy?

In modern democracies, who gets to determine what counts as truth—an elite of experts or the people as a whole?

by David A. Bell via The Nation on January 24, 2019

The Untold Story of the Pentagon Papers Co-Conspirators

A historian reveals the crucial role that he played in helping Daniel Ellsberg leak the documents to journalists.

by Eric Litchblau via The New Yorker on January 29, 2018

The New York Times office building in New York City.

The New York Times Journalist Who Secretly Led the Charge Against Liberal Media Bias

The untold story of the double agent who attacked the paper from within.

by Sid Bedingfield via Made By History on December 11, 2017

The Myth of Deep Throat

Mark Felt wasn’t out to protect American democracy and the rule of law; he was out to get a promotion.

by Max Holland via Politico Magazine on September 10, 2017

A memorial to those killed located in El Mozote, El Salvador. Archbishop Romero Trust.

Remember El Mozote

On December 11, 1981, El Salvador’s US-backed soldiers carried out one of the worst massacres in the history of the Americas at El Mozote.

by Branko Marcetic, Micah Uetricht via Jacobin on December 12, 2016

A crowd dressed in white marches in the Silent Parade of 1917 in Washington, D.C.

Fighting in Defense of Their Lives

The NAACP investigates a race riot.

by James Weldon Johnson via Lapham’s Quarterly on September 1, 1919

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