Black Friday 2018

Saturday, February 25, 2017

The Washington Post's "New" Slogan

When I saw "Democracy Dies in Darkness" under  The Washington Post's masthead the other day, I thought it was a joke. 'Someone has used a graphics program to put these two together,' I thought. Well, the entire world may know by now "Democracy Dies in Darkness" is the Post's new slogan.

Except, at The Post reports, that the slogan is not new because it's a phrase that longtime Post reporter Bob Woodward has been using for years. And Woodward said he did originate the phrase. It's a variant of 'Democracy dies in the dark', which Woodward read in a judicial opinion by Damon Keith in a case prior to Watergate.

While I can understand that the Post had been planning for months to launch this slogan, how could the newspaper not have realized that such a slogan would be seem to be directed at the new administration in the White House? It's hard to believe that the paper didn't think people would assume a connection even if none existed. Knowing current political realities, the Post moved forward in adopting this slogan.