I've had a gnarly cold the last week so it's been hard for me to collect my thoughts through the haze of meds but — Wednesday was my last day as an investigative reporter for The Washington Post. I happened to accept an offer last week, so I'll be landing on my feet, but many of my immensely talented colleagues are not as fortunate. I will be forever grateful to my teammates and editors for taking a chance and hiring an infosec engineer with 0 past reporting experience. I got to experience firsthand what it's like to work in a big newsroom and it's wild how far public perception is from reality, so I'd like to help set the record straight — To the people who think the Post is too far left or too far to the center or too far right or too far from your chosen worldview, I've got bad news for you: the newsroom was the most apolitical job I've ever held. We held power to account. Period. Not once did I hear anyone bring up personal politics when discussing a story, and I know if anyone did, they would have been met with a healthy dose of side-eye. We cared about only one thing: the truth. If the truth upsets you because it's incongruent with your worldview...good. It should. The truth should illuminate and infuriate. If you're looking to live in the safe confines of an echo chamber that won't hurt your feelings, then there are a few billionaires with hypertuned algorithms that would love for you to spend hours mainlining hopium while you live safely in your bubble. To those who are still willing to share an objective reality, but think you're sending a message to people like Bezos by canceling your subscriptions — what message do you think you're sending, and to whom? Because I promise you that Jeff was not laying awake at night fretting over the subscriber figures. But I don't blame readers — most people don't realize that editorial (opinions) and news are completely different sections. They operate independently. Opinions are subjective — the truth is not. A strong newsroom leader would have gotten out in front of all the backlash and helped educate people, helped reassure the public that regardless of the very stupid decisions of a few, there were many more people in the newsroom dedicated to reporting the truth. Instead the newsroom was hung out to dry while Will Lewis was...doing whatever the fuck he's been doing the last few years. I will never forget my time at The Washington Post. I have never worked harder in my life with people that are so dedicated to what they do, and to ensuring that they do it with the utmost care and attention. Whether or not you read the Post, I promise you that the decimation of that newsroom is a net negative for society and reality.