Jacob Bernstein

"I kept each one of these businesses going longer than anyone on Earth ever could have," says Richard Baker, whose company, Saks Global, entered Chapter 11 last month. As he sees it, his run through luxury retail was "very successful" never mind "what you've been reading." nytimes.com/2026/02/23/bus…

Much of the mourning for the late great @washingtonpost has rightly focused on how democracy dies in darkness at the national level, which is hugely important. But the evisceration of Metro coverage is every bit as devastating because there is no comparable news outlet keeping local governments and institutions honest. Eight of my 20 years at the Post were spent on Metro, which was the heart and soul of the Post under the legendary @dongrahamdc1. The undertakers now running the paper have all but wiped out the metro staff, leaving just 12 reporters, according to reports, to cover a region of 6.5 million people. We had twice that many journalists in Fairfax alone back in the day. And it mattered. Reporters are the eyes and ears of the community, keeping tabs on people in power. We were there for every supervisors meeting, every school board meeting. We pored through planning commission documents and campaign filings. When county officials wasted taxpayer money, raised taxes on overstretched homeowners, gave sweetheart zoning deals to developers who filled their election coffers, we were there. When teachers who sexually abused students were quietly transferred to other schools to do it all over again, we were there. We were there for the more uplifting stories too, the cops who broke a cold case, the educators who turned around a struggling school, the residents who rallied to help neighbors in trouble, the student athletes who won the big game, the entrepreneurs who started something new. Our friend @SariHorwitz who has won more Pulitzers than I can count, wrote so movingly online about the Post (facebook.com/share/p/1AZLTT…). To recognize how indispensable local coverage is, you need only look at her holy-shit investigations of a broken child welfare system, rampant police shootings and the corporate-fed opioid crisis, stories that opened eyes and led to change. Democracy is not just what happens at the White House and the Capitol but in our own backyards. The Post has just turned the lights down at home too.

Firing a reporter via email while she’s in a war zone risking her life for her readers is a despicable, disgraceful act.

The paper no longer has a sports department, but Will Lewis is in California walking the NFL red carpet?

Still reeling that my four years covering the war in Ukraine for The Washington Post are up — right before the invasion anniversary. I plan to stay in Kyiv because this story is more important than ever. So please reach out with opportunities.

My colleague Marty Weil is one of The Post’s last living ties to Watergate. He’s covered stories that range from local crime to the Sept. 11 attacks to whimsical weather musings. After 60 years, he was laid off yesterday by email. nytimes.com/2026/02/05/bus…

The show Heated Rivalry only exists because of an article by @Curious_Kurz in @washingtonpost inspired the showmaker to reach out to the book's author. Today, The Washington Post laid off the reporter who did the story.

A staggering statement from former Washington Post editor Marty Baron: "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world's greatest news organizations."

Jeff Bezos wealth in 2024: $194 billion Jeff Bezos wealth in 2025: $215 billion Jeff Bezos wealth today: $249.4 billion Net increase in Bezos wealth since 2024: $55.4 billion Cost of Bezos’s 417-foot superyacht: $500 million Amazon investment in "Melania": $75 million Original Bezos purchase price of the Washington Post in 2013: $250 million Bezos net worth in 2013: $25.2 billion Net increase in Bezos wealth since buying the Post: $224.2 billion Last reported annual losses of Post: $100 million Number of years Bezos could absorb those losses with what he makes in a single week: 5 @JeffBezos

I was just laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone. I have no words. I'm devastated.

@chip2423 @VerizonNews I'm not getting the sense T-Mobile or AT&T users are having a real issue -- they're simply unable to reach people on Verizon because our phones are down.

@VerizonNews T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon all start having outages at the same time Verizon had the biggest outage ?? somthing is going on.

Verizon's team is on the ground actively working to fix today’s service issue that is impacting some customers. We know this is a huge inconvenience, and our top priority is to get you back online and connected as fast as possible. We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this issue.

@ElfmanFilm @AirMailWeekly Um, he agreed to be interviewed extensively for this piece for a reason...He's not saying "how dare you?"

@AirMailWeekly @BernsteinJacob how dare you keep bringing stuff like this up, this stuff is old news now and has Died Down, Danny Did nothing Wrong and no one cares about it anymore, so we're moving on

What really happened between award-winning Hollywood composer Danny Elfman and his accuser? @BernsteinJacob trib.al/C3aaA3B

Angie Stone, Roberta Flack and Gwen McCrae. All gone in one week. WTFF?

Among the biggest most stupid frequently said things: Dogs have no concept of time. Every dog has an internal clock, whether or not they perceive it as such. This is a thing to make us feel less guilty about leaving them but it’s utter nonsense.

The synthesizer on Marianne Faithfull’s The Ballad of Lucy Jordan is played by none other than Steve Winwood and is about as fortuitous a collaboration as Prince playing synthesizer on Stevie Nicks’ Srand Back. 🙏

If you had a house in the Palisades, the chances that it burned down were relatively low if you were seriously rich, and highly probable if you were middle class. Latest piece here. @nytimes nytimes.com/2025/01/11/us/…

…names one of maybe four Black comedians whose names she knows. 🤮

Biden smiles when asked about Sen. Warner’s reported efforts to get him to drop out of the race. “Mark is a good man. He also tried to get the nomination, too.” (Warner didn’t run for office.)