Bob Woodward, the veteran Washington Post journalist famous for exposing Watergate, said he is “crushed” by the layoffs of more than 300 colleagues at the paper. These cuts are about a third of the staff, ending teams covering sports, local news, style, and global stories. They also hit the paper’s audio and video departments, along with commercial teams. Woodward shared his feelings publicly on X. “I am crushed that so many of my beloved colleagues have lost their jobs and our readers have been given less news and sound analysis,” he said. “They deserve more.” He praised the Post’s work under executive editor Matt Murray, saying: “There will be more. I will do everything in my power to help make sure the Washington Post thrives and survives.” Woodward’s history with the Post is deep, having helped break the Watergate scandal along with Carl Bernstein, which cost President Nixon his job in 1974. He now holds an honorary associate editor title. His statement came after the newspaper’s major cuts announced on Wednesday. Former editor Marty Baron criticized the cuts, telling the Guardian that the paper’s ambitions have fallen and worried about fewer subscribers and a potential "death spiral." The Post also lost hundreds of thousands of subscribers in late 2024 after owner Jeff Bezos stopped the paper’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris days before the presidential election won by Donald Trump. Woodward and Bernstein called that move “surprising and disappointing.” Woodward also praised the Post’s ongoing political reporting, especially on Donald Trump, telling the New Yorker that the paper “lives and is doing an extraordinary reporting job on the political crisis that is Donald Trump.” Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013 and said he wanted to provide “financial runway” to stop the paper from shrinking into irrelevance and extinction. Ironically, the day after these layoffs were announced, Amazon revealed plans to spend $200 billion on AI and robotics over the next year.