A mockup of plans to light the Washington Post's building in Commanders' colors, and use their slogan, if they win. A mockup of plans to light the Washington Post’s building in Commanders’ colors, and use their slogan, if they win. (The Washington Post, via The Washingtonian.)

One of the most interesting discussions around media bias is what people expect from local newspapers with the sports teams they cover. That relationship has often been adversarial and has also led to reporting from those papers when things go wrong for local teams.

But when things are going well, those newspapers often look to get in on that moment. And the particular way The Washington Post is currently doing so with the NFL’s Washington Commanders is drawing some skepticism. As Andrew Beaujon of the Washingtonian wrote Saturday, the newspaper has already started lighting its building’s spires in burgundy ahead of the team’s NFC Championship clash with the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday, and is set to do full burgundy-and-gold lighting with the team’s “Raise Hail” slogan if they win, tying that into packages of its print products:

The Washington Post plans to light its DC headquarters in burgundy and gold and project the team’s “Raise Hail” slogan on the building’s façade if the Washington Commanders beat the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. It began to light the spires of the building in burgundy on Friday night, a Post spokesperson tells Washingtonian.

The aspirational display is part of a package of efforts the Post plans to make on behalf of the team, whose popularity in the DC area has been rejuvenated since unpopular owner Dan Snyder sold the team to a group led by Josh Harris in 2023 and the team began an improbable, thrilling run to Sunday’s NFC Championship game, whose winner will go to the Super Bowl. Sunday’s print paper will include a page that shows a timeline of Sports section front pages from this season, as well as a “Raise Hail” poster.

This comes after a recent initiative from the paper to present a collection of its season of Commanders’ postgame sports fronts for purchase, as Post digital sports editor Dan Steinberg posted about this week:

But this isn’t going over well with everyone.

Some criticism on social media came from veteran media reporter Paul Farhi, who worked for the paper for 35 years before taking a buyout in December 2023. Farhi wondered “Should news organizations be fanboys?” (and also asked if the paper should do this before the game rather than only if the team wins):

Yes, there’s context to that particular criticism. In May 2024, Farhi announced he’d won a fight with the Post over an unpaid five-day suspension in 2022 after he accurately reported on X about the paper’s removal of bylines and datelines for journalists based in Ukraine during Russia’s offensive there.) And beyond that, while his media reporting work has sometimes touched on sports, Farhi’s news work at the Post and beyond has usually been more focused on national and international news issues, so this isn’t a criticism from someone from the sports department.

Still, this is notable given not just Farhi’s prominence in the media space (he has continued to contribute to a variety of outlets after leaving the Post, having pieces published everywhere from The Atlantic to The Athletic to Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, The Columbia Journalism Review, and more), but also his history with this specific paper.

And another element here is this paper’s history with this team.

The Post often provided some of the most crucial coverage of the many scandals with this team under former owner Dan Snyder, and even of Snyder’s eventual complicated sale to Josh Harris. (especially considering the ways Snyder tried to control media coverage.) And while there have not been similar scandals in the first year of Harris’ ownership, it’s still at least somewhat of a double-take-inducing moment to see the Post building set to be lit in team colors. (And perhaps even the larger deal is the plan to include the team slogan; that’s not just celebrating the team and the city, but getting on board with the team’s particular marketing push.)

It should also be noted that lighting the Post building in Commanders’ colors is likely not the decision of anyone from the sports department, but rather a higher-up business and marketing initiative. And there are all sorts of precedents for that, including special commemorative fronts with higher print runs for team championships and special commemorative books after those championships.

But lighting the building is a step beyond any of that, and is something more often seen for arenas, other buildings, and even natural wonders. So the double-take here from Farhi is understandable. And, while it doesn’t necessarily have any reflection on the Post‘s ability to cover the team (it’s not their sports reporters and columnists making this call), it is odd to see this paper getting so on side with this team.

Maybe that’s what the Post‘s local readership in particular wants, just a celebration of what the Commanders have done. And, as noted, commemorative sections and books for teams are hardly uncommon. But the Post as an institution would not have been accused of rooting for this team in the not-so-distant past. And while it still may only be their business department doing so, it’s at the least interesting to see them doing that.

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.