KTTH OPINION

Rantz: Phony ‘conservative’ ditches job she shouldn’t have had, for inevitable failure

Jan 13, 2025, 1:59 PM

Photo: Jennifer Rubin onstage....

Jennifer Rubin onstage at Politicon. (Photo: Michael S. Schwartz, Getty Images)

(Photo: Michael S. Schwartz, Getty Images)

Jennifer Rubin, a Washington Post (WaPo) columnist who, for years, pretended to be a conservative until her obsession with Donald Trump, is calling it quits. In her dramatic exit, she called out WaPo owner Jeff Bezos. She should look in the mirror.

“Corporate and billionaire owners of major media outlets have betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission – defending, protecting and advancing democracy. The Washington Post’s billionaire owner and enlisted management are among the offenders,” Rubin wrote without a shred of irony.

Claiming big corporations “have undercut the values central to The Post’s mission and that of all of journalism integrity, courage and independence,” she said she couldn’t “justify remaining at The Post.”

“Jeff Bezos and his cronies accommodate and enable the most acute threat to American democracy – Donald Trump – at a time when a vibrant free press is more essential than ever to our democracy’s survival and capacity to thrive,” Rubin said in her exit letter.

WaPo has many faults, no doubt. One of its biggest was paying Rubin a large salary to fraudulently call herself a conservative columnist.

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Jennifer Rubin is a hypocrite

Jennifer Rubin departing from The Washington Post is a welcome development for a paper that is struggling to remain relevant because it hired people like Jennifer Rubin. But her exit was a transparently self-serving press release meant to cover up her years of hypocrisy.

After years of masquerading as a conservative voice, Rubin now lambasts the paper’s corporate ownership, accusing them of betraying journalistic integrity? This, from someone who shifted her political stance to align with the prevailing winds, all while enjoying the platform provided by the very institution she now decries.

Rubin’s criticism of Bezos for allegedly seeking favor with political figures is particularly rich. She claims corporate interests have “betrayed their audiences’ loyalty and sabotaged journalism’s sacred mission.” Yet, during her tenure, Rubin was unabashed in her support for Democratic candidates, notably Vice President Kamala Harris and the entire Joe Biden administration.

When The Post decided against endorsing Harris, Rubin was among the columnists who publicly condemned the decision, calling it a “terrible mistake.” Her alignment with Democratic figures seemed less about journalistic integrity and more about securing frequent appearances on MSNBC — another major corporate entity, though she apparently has no issue with them.

Mad at journalism

Rubin’s lament that The Post enabled figures like Donald Trump to threaten press freedom is disingenuous. She has been vocal in her desire to marginalize and silence conservative voices, advocating for the “end of impartiality and balance in journalism.” It’s the height of irony for someone who has called for the suppression of opposing viewpoints to now position herself as a champion of free speech.

“The Kabuki dance in which Trump, his defenders and his supporters are treated as rational (clever even!) is what comes from a media establishment that refuses to discard its need for false balance that it has developed over the course of decades,” she once wrote.

As constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley pointed out, the balance that Rubin is complaining about was once actually called “journalism.” Naturally, then, she said she’s joining an independent outlet.

Here’s where Jennifer Rubin will fail next

In her resignation, Jennifer Rubin announced she would be joining a Substack newsletter co-founded by Norm Eisen, a former Obama official and CNN commentator. This partisan move further erodes any pretense of objectivity. And it’s not even original: it’s like the Bulwark for stay-at-home moms who drink wine all day while watching MSNBC.

Rubin is joining a long list of former journalists who left jobs they were lucky to have to go independent and fail miserably. I’d offer you the list but they failed so spectacularly, only a few come to mind. That one guy from CNN who worked alongside Brian Stelter and Taylor Lorenz, who we only keep mildly relevant because it’s fun to watch him cry and break down in interviews when challenged.

This exit is less a principled stand and more a calculated maneuver to maintain relevance in an evolving media landscape. Only it won’t work. She can only get so many subscribers from MSNBC appearances. Her critiques of corporate media ring hollow, given her own opportunistic shifts and transparent self-interest. The media landscape is better off without such duplicity.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz on XInstagramYouTube and Facebook.

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