‘A bad day’: Sacked Washington Post staff, including Shashi Tharoor’s son, pen sombre notes after layoffs

NEW YORK: Washington Post employees, including Ishaan Tharoor, son of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, shared heartfelt and sombre messages on social media as one of the world’s premier media organisations announced widespread layoffs earlier on Wednesday, affecting its international reportage footprint and sports desk.

In a post on X, Ishaan Tharoor said he was “heartbroken” over being laid off and expressed solidarity with his peers who faced the same fate.

“I have been laid off today from the Washington Post, along with most of the International staff and so many other wonderful colleagues. I’m heartbroken for our newsroom and especially for the peerless journalists who served the Post internationally — editors and correspondents who have been my friends and collaborators for almost 12 years. It’s been an honour to work with them”, he said in his post.

Tharoor also stated that launching the WorldView column in 2017 to help readers understand global affairs had been an honour, thanking the half a million loyal subscribers who followed his work. “A bad day,” Tharoor stated in a separate post, sharing a picture of an empty newsroom.

A bad day pic.twitter.com/cIX8rIjJPu

— Ishaan Tharoor (@ishaantharoor) February 4, 2026

This comes after The Washington Post on Wednesday announced significant layoffs after the company underwent what it described as “significant restructuring”, shutting down the current Sports Desk and scaling down its international reportage footprint, as reported by Fox News. According to Fox News, a third of the company has been affected by the layoffs.

Will Hobson, who was an Investigative reporter at the Post, also took to X after being laid off, writing, “Some personal news: I’m among today’s Washington Post layoffs. It was a dream 11-year run as an investigative reporter focused on sports–making billionaires tremble (or at least mildly annoying them and their lawyers)”.

Gerry Shih, the Post’s Jerusalem bureau chief, was another who had the same fate also expressed his grief and pride, saying, “It was a privilege to be a Post correspondent, roaming the world the last 7+ years for a paper I very much believed in.”

He also noted that, along with him, the rest of the Middle East team and most of his colleagues in Delhi, Beijing, Kyiv, and Latin America were affected. “I’m gone along with the rest of the ME team and the majority of teammates from Delhi to Beijing to Kyiv & LatAm. Sad day, but it was a lot of fun, and we raised hell”, Shih added.

Other international correspondents from the Post, including Cairo bureau chief Claire Parker, Visual Forensics staff Nilo Tabrizy, Ukraine correspondent Lizzie Johnson and Berlin bureau chief Aaron Wiener, also shared emotional notes reflecting on their tenure and the shock of sudden job losses.

“Laid off from the Washington Post, along with the entire roster of Middle East correspondents and our editors. Hard to understand the logic. But I am grateful for my incredible colleagues, whose grit and dedication to the reporting and each other I will miss dearly”, Parker said in her post on X.

Meanwhile, Wiener’s post on X read, “Unfortunately, the Washington Post has decided to eliminate its Berlin bureau and with it my job. It’s been the honour and adventure of a lifetime to be Berlin bureau chief, even if just for 6 months. So many great journalists have lost their jobs today. It’s a dark day.”

Johnson, in her post, stated that she was “laid off by The Washington Post in the middle of a warzone” and that she was “devastated.”

National culture writer Jada Yuan and National politics reporter Brianna Tucker highlighted the personal and professional impact of the layoffs, with Yuan noting the struggles of colleagues reporting from war zones and Tucker describing the “immense privilege and profound responsibility” of her work over the years.

“Hi everyone, some news: I was laid off as part of the massive cuts at The Washington Post. Thinking about my colleagues on the foreign desk living in war zones, and much of our arts team, and our readers. We’ll need your support and, as soon as the numbness passes, I’ll need work!” Yuan said in her post on X.

“I’m affected by layoffs at The Washington Post today. There aren’t enough words to describe the immense privilege and profound responsibility I’ve felt since hired at 25 as an editor. As a Black woman covering politics (a dwindling cohort), today that feeling is magnified”, Tucker stated on X.

The layoffs mark a significant reduction in the Washington Post’s international coverage and have left many veteran journalists reflecting on their careers and contributions.

Retired Executive Editor of the Post, Mary Baron, was quoted by The Wrap as saying, “This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organisations. The Washington Post’s ambitions will be sharply diminished, its talented and brave staff will be further depleted, and the public will be denied the ground-level, fact-based reporting in our communities and around the world that is needed more than ever.”

Reports say the cuts at the Post also include closing the Books section, cancelling the Post Reports podcast, and significantly reducing Metro and international coverage.

The Washington Post is owned by Amazon founder and billionaire Jeff Bezos. The Washington Post Guild, the union for staff members, had appealed to the public to send a message to Bezos: “Enough is enough. Without the staff of The Washington Post, there is no Washington Post”.

“If Jeff Bezos is no longer willing to invest in the mission that has defined this paper for generations and serve the millions who depend on Post journalism, then The Post deserves a steward that will,” a statement from the Washington Post Guild read. (ANI)