by Peggy Robin
Yesterday, I happened across a copy of a letter that long-time DC resident Marie Dressel sent to the Washington Post to cancel her subscription. The person who publicized Ms. Drissel's letter was Tom Sherwood, formerly a reporter for News4Washington and currently the co-host (with Kojo Nnamdi) of WAMU's DC Politics Hour,
Here is that post:
Tom Sherwood @tomsherwood:
Calling Jeff Bezos “a disgraceful owner” of the Post, longtime DC civic activist Marie Drissel, a 5th generation Washingtonian, writes publisher Will Lewis, saying she has cancelled her family subscription.
I know it will be a big adjustment to wake up in the morning wthout a big daily newspaper on the doorstep. Even with the paper's about-face on its mission to serve democracy, changed by the owner into a mission to boost his stated twin goals of serving "free markets and personal liberties" -- and its drastic pruning of local coverage, its excision of whole sections, and ongoing dismissals/ firings or forced resignations of so much of its award-winning staff, (see note, below*), it still fills a role that no other news source occupies in our capital city. Despite everything, it will still be hard to live without it.
E-newsletters, blogs and local discussion forums, including our own beloved Listserv, are not enough. They are too various and scattered, too niche-y -- and who has time to read so many separate Substacks and Patreons? I want to acknowledge the sacrifice Ms Drissel is making to register her protest.
Her letter also gives me an opportunity to recognize the contribution she's made over the years -- all 18 of them! -- as a participating member of Listserv community. She hasn't been a terribly frequent poster, but each and every post she's made has been helpful in some way.
I compiled this sampling:
- Advice on appealing your tax assessment
- Recommending an upholsterer
- Seeking laptops for a DC high school student, a recent refugee from war-ravaged Chad
- Notifying the Listserv that 2 other long-time DC residents & Listserv members, Judy & Gary Kopff, had recently been honored by the DC Council with a proclamation thanking them for their years of volunteer work in the city.
- Tips on how to make sure the Office of Tax & Revenue logs in your tax return as filed on time
- How to protest overcharges on a utility bill
- Giving away Mielle vaccuum accessories
- Recommending a cell phone with affordable service in the UK and elsewhere
Thank you, Ms. Drissel!
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Still Life with Robin is published on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Saturdays.
* Weird postscript: The April Fool's joke for 2023 was a "Still Life with Robin" column announcing some significant changes coming to the Washington Post, like cancelling more sections and features and firing staff writers and replacing them with AI bots. It was supposed to be funny. So much of what was being made fun of has come to pass that it now feels more like gloom-and-doom prophecy than a parody.
Another Marie Drissel target has been the sex-centered business nightclub at the corner of Florida avenue and Connecticut Avenue called Assets and other names.
ReplyDeleteWe've known Marie for decades and she is outstanding.
As a recent college graduates, ca. 1975, a housemate and I pasted stickers to the walls of that nightclub at Florida Avenue and Connecticut Avenues reading "This is insulting to women." I am pleased to share another animus with Ms. Drissel.
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