Washington Post Editor Slams Paper for Op-Ed ‘Essentially Equating’ Biden, Trump Pardons: ‘Utterly Lost Its Soul’

The Wrap ^ | January 22, 2025 | Ross A. Lincoln

[MinorityRepublican]

One of the Washington Post’s longest tenured editors denounced the paper in stark terms on Wednesday night, declaring that it has “utterly lost its soul” after publishing an op-ed drawing false equivalence between pardons issued by Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

“The Washington Post editorial this morning essentially equating Biden’s questionable pardons with Trump’s outrageous Jan. 6 pardons was unconscionable,” David Maraniss, a 1993 Pulitzer Prize winner who has been with the paper nearly 50 years, wrote on Bluesky. “The newspaper I’ve been part of for 48 years has utterly lost its soul.”

Maraniss didn’t link to the editorial in question, but he appears to be referring to one actually published late Tuesday by Jason Willick, titled “The Biden-Trump pardons show collapsing executive restraint.”

Among its arguments, the op-ed says “it’s debatable which president’s abuse of the pardon power on Monday… was more damaging,” and describes them as “tit-for-tat escalations.”

While it does refer to Trump’s mass-pardons for Jan.6 insurrectionists “indefensible,” it largely treats Biden’s preemptive pardons of people Trump has threatened to persecute with state power as, effectively, morally equivalent.

Maraniss didn’t follow up on the comment, and as of this writing he has not announced he is resigning from the paper. But it’s not the first time he’s called out his employer in such direct terms. In October, after owner Jeff Bezos killed the Washington Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, Maraniss wrote on Twitter, “Once again but this time more than ever I am embarrassed for my newspaper. The decision in this of all years to not endorse when democracy is on the line is contemptible.”

[Sir Bangaz Cracka]

I agree. There can be no equating. The two situations are diametrically opposed.

With Biden’s pardons, you had a group of criminals orchestrating a hoax on the American people, and needed to imprison innocent pawns to complete their scheme by making it appear to the public that an unlawful insurrection attempt had taken place. They made criminals out of innocent victims.

Whereas with Trumps pardons, you had a correcting of the wrongs inflicted on innocent victims by a group of criminals.

Not even close. MSM print ain’t even worth using for wiping.

[Wally_Kalbacken]

I would say that it has utterly lost its net worth. The reason Bezos is making changes is that, while it would be easier to sell and walk away, no one would be offering anything for the paper. When he bought it, IIRC, he paid about $250M for the paper and some associated properties (TV and radio stations.) If you broke the deal apart, and valued the non-newspaper assets, he got the newspaper gratis, thrown in with the marginally profitable other assets. Recently the newspaper has been losing its posterior - about $70M lost in the last year. So in essence, the Graham family passed him a hand grenade, with the pin pulled. He can continue to operate and absorb losses (which is not difficult for him) or he can shut it down and never hear the end of it.

[TexasFreeper2009]

Almost correct. There certainly was no comparison to the J6 protestor pardons to the pardon of leonard peltier who actually murdered 2 FBI agents that Biden granted a pardon to on his way out the door.

[IncPen]

Psalm 112:10
The wicked will see it and be vexed,
He will gnash his teeth and melt away;
The desire of the wicked will perish.

[MplsSteve]

“OK, let’s say somebody shoved a copper and broke a window. How many years in prison should they get? How many years of solitary confinement, being transferred to a different prison every three or four months, solitary confinement, Notes for their lawyer confiscated, meetings with her lawyer for bidden for weeks or months at a time, and all in a filthy racist DC prison. How long should they get for that?”

Correct. The punishment comes nowhere close to fitting the crime.