Why did they let the Washington Post turn conservative?

[Woodstock]

I read both the biography of Katharine Graham and the biography of Ben Bradlee recently, and I've got to wonder, why did they let the post turn conservative? Surely with the Washington Times around, the Post could at least slant a LITTLE to the left as in the old days? Instead, it's increasingly slanting right.

This from The Nation:

The Bush team still has its media apologists, of course. Bob Woodward, who serves as the Administration's unofficial autobiographer, took to the Larry King program to pooh-pooh the whole thing as just "one little piece of thousands of pieces that get sifted when they put something like this together." (Now do you wonder why they turn the secret NSC notes over to this guy?) Meanwhile, Ari Fleischer's personal flack, the Washington Post's Howie Kurtz, tried to blame the entire outcry on "the left," as in: "The left is now up in arms about one sentence in George Bush's last State of the Union speech." (Just "one sentence." Just one war. Just how silly can we leftists be?)

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030804&s=alterman

[SyracuseDemocrat]

1. Howard Kurtz is

still our friend. he's a solid liberal democrat.

[unfrigginreal]

2. Really?

Wow, that's surprising. You could never tell from his writings.

[Cha]

5. I don't believe that. howie is a mediawhore and is mean and

condescending to Dems!

[Dob Bole]

3. A Conservative bought it....

I think Rev. Moon, a religious right unitarian, owns the paper.

[SharonAnn]

6. No, Rev Moon owns the Washington TIMES, not the Post

eom

[edward]

8. Hard to tell these days.

nt

[Cha]

7. The moonie "bought" the washington times. he can't have

both.

[Woodstock]

10. The Times is vastly outsold by the Post

but look on any rabid Bushie's desk and he'll have it sitting there, in all its Fox News glory.

[cthrumatrix]

4. It's not "conservatism"...it's Corporatism....it's the "Agenda"...not

the spin ...liberal or conservative.

We get split on this issue all the time. Who in their right mind says a democrat cares more or less than republican.

Washington Posts goes with the main agenda...otherwise they would the carlyle connection, the energy task force..etc...

[Woodstock]

9. Not sure what your point is - more on why he thinks they swing right

I take it you are saying the Post is neutral? I personally haven't observed that. Read below for further observations. If we assume something is going on (which it sounds like you don't want to do) then what I'm wondering is what forces came into play post-Graham/Bradlee to make it happen.

From an article by Eric Alterman (from his book "What Liberal Media?"):

"...The Washington Post is just swarming with conservatives, from Michael Kelly to George Will to Robert Novak to Charles Krauthammer..."

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15187

and he goes on to discuss Howard Kurtz at length.

This isn't the Post I read growing up. Bob Woodward is "the assistant managing editor for Investigative News for the Washington Post" - while he's a likely culprit, it doesn't sound like that's a hugely influencial position.