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WaPo I: Graham Crackers
by Mark Steyn
Read the whole thing. Delicious.

From TFA:
The reaction of Post staffers to the stunning news that the Graham dynasty has gone the way of the Habsburgs and Romanovs, not to mention the Shah family of Nepal,
Goodness. Somebody is taking themselves a good deal too seriously.
is a good example of how American "journalists" destroyed their own business. Ruth Marcus, with exquisite lack of self-awareness, pens a paean to her own grief at the fall of the monarchy: How great were the Grahams? Why, Ruth's book group selected Mrs Graham's autobiography to read, and Ruth summoned up the courage to ask Mrs Graham if she'd kindly consider the possibility of deigning to grace them with her presence while they discussed how marvelous her book was, and Mrs Graham's assistant called back to say that that week didn't work, but she could do the following week! Amazing!

Through good times and bad, and it has mattered most in the bad times, the Graham family has understood itself as having been entrusted with the care of a special institution.

That's the problem right there. A newspaper is not an "institution," and its proprietors are not curators. It exists in the present tense, reborn every dawn. A good example of the ossification that occurs when you think of yourself as Ruth Marcus does is her opening paragraph.
Posted by: badanov 2013-08-09
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=373627