A Washington Post staff writer, and co-chair of its union, blasted the news outlet for buying a pricey 60-second Super Bowl spot during the game, calling it an “infuriating expense.”
The glossy commercial, narrated by Hollywood A-lister Tom Hanks, delivers “a message underscoring the importance of news-gathering and the dangers journalists can face,” the Post maintains.
Fredrick Kunkle, in a series of tweets also noted the $10 million price tag.
“The Post is now paying, say, $5M/30 seconds to tout journalistic freedom during one of the glitziest and – given the NFL’s knee-taking protests and concussions – more controversial sports events in our country,” Kunkle tweeted.
“While I too am extremely proud of the Post and its legacy, this seems like an especially infuriating expense for a company that has: a) tried to take away health care insurance from part-time employees b) moved everyone toward riskier forms of health insurance,” he added in a second tweet.
In a third post, he also charged the Post “c) made it easier to lay people off d) cut their severance e) froze their pensions and resisted the smallest enhancements to remaining retirement benefits until Sen. Bernie Sanders shamed it into doing so…”
Continuing in the final missive, “f) refused to add a single day of paid parental leave to its measly four weeks and g) must know that other media companies, sensing trouble ahead, have been trimming staff.”
In an email to USA Today, Kunkle added that “those tweets make it clear that I for one think it’s extravagant and in poor taste.”
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