Greenwald:

One of the rarest commodities in the establishment media is someone who was a vehement critic of George Bush and who now, applying their principles consistently, has become a regular critic of Barack Obama -- i.e., someone who criticizes Obama from what is perceived as "the Left" rather than for being a Terrorist-Loving Socialist Muslim.

Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Greenwald suspect it was because of his reporting on torture:

Dan's work on torture may be one reason he is now gone. The way in which the WaPo has been coopted by the neocon right, especially in its editorial pages, is getting more and more disturbing. This purge will prompt a real revolt in the blogosphere. And it should.

In the one case of "media bias," the wingnut freakazoids are actually playing - and winning - a long game.

It started more than 40 years ago, when Nixon fought against objective and factual accounts of his campaign tactics by labeling all objective media "biased liberal."

Nonstop repetition of this lie wore objective outlets like the Post and the NYTimes down to the point they started believing it themselves, or at least thought they could relieve the weight of the accusation by becoming biased conservative.

The more they leaned wingnut while claiming an objectivity they lost sometime in the '80s, the easier it was for wingnut freakazoid Fox to claim the objectivity mantle for itself.

Greenwald continues:

What makes this firing so bizarre and worthy of inquiry is that, as Calderone notes, Froomkin was easily one of the most linked-to and cited Post columnists. At a time when newspapers are relying more and more on online traffic, the Post just fired the person who, in 2007, wrote 3 out of the top 10 most-trafficked columns. In publishing that data, Media Bistro used this headline: "The Post's Most Popular Opinions (Read: Froomkin)." Isn't that an odd person to choose to get rid of? ... In addition to his Rupert Murdoch perch at Fox, Krauthammer remains as a regular columnist at the Post, alongside fellow right-wing Obama haters such as Bill Kristol, George Will, Jim Hoagland, Michael Gerson and Robert Kagan -- as well as a whole bevy of typical, banal establishment spokespeople who are highly supportive of whatever the permanent Washington establishment favors (David Ignatius, Fred Hiatt, Ruth Marcus, David Broder, Richard Cohen, Howie Kurtz, etc. etc.). And that's to say nothing of the regular Op-Ed appearances by typical Krauthammer-mimicking neoconservative voices such as John Bolton, Joe Lieberman, and Douglas Feith -- and the Post Editorial Page itself. "Caracas" indeed.

Consider the on-going whine by newspapers and other MSM about the demise of journalism due to the internet.

Why has nobody stopped to consider that people have stopped buying newspapers, not because of the internet, but because they are tired of the right wing tilt of the print media? I think that is also true of the rest of the MSM. I canceled my local paper, not because I would rather read news on the internet (I wouldn't), but because I was tired of its on-going right wing slant. I certainly wouldn't buy a Washington Post and I'm not all that happy with the NY TIMES.

So, instead of blaming loss of readership on new technology, print media should take a careful look at the product they offer. People are voting with their feet. They saw how the MSM lied to them on the run-up to the Iraq fiasco and they wonder why they should buy "news" that has been clearly demonstrated to lack credibility.

PLEASE CALL THE WASHINGTON POST: Threaten a boycott for this inexplicable firing of one of the best blogger/columnists at WaPo. Tell them you are cancelling their subscriptions. He does not deserve to go without a logical explanation. He brought the WaPo a ton of traffic when the newspaper industry is hurting. For this firing, they will hurt more: Send a Letter to the Editor: letters@washpost.com Or Send a comment through their Feedback website Phone

Main Number: 703.469.2500

Main Fax: 703.469.2995 E-mail (click for pop-up feedback windows) Goli Sheikholeslami- General Manager

Steve Stup - VP, Sales & Advertising Address

P.O. Box 17370

Arlington, VA 22216 Advertising 703.469.2501

Here is the number to The Washington Post Company: The Washington Post Company 1150 15th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20071

202.334.6000

TWPCoReply@washpost.com

Here is Froomkin's own statement:

I’m terribly disappointed. I was told that it had been determined that my White House Watch blog wasn’t "working" anymore. But from what I could tell, it was still working very well. I also thought White House Watch was a great fit with The Washington Post brand, and what its readers reasonably expect from the Post online. As I’ve written elsewhere, I think that the future success of our business depends on journalists enthusiastically pursuing accountability and calling it like they see it. That’s what I tried to do every day. Now I guess I'll have to try to do it someplace else.

Froomkin has been a hero in exposing the torture regime of Bush and Cheney.