The Washington Post
washingtonpost.com ↗U.S. national newspaper, founded 1877; investigative + politics emphasis; Pulitzer record.
Is The Washington Post reliable to cite? At grade A (86/100 on the SourceScore Index), The Washington Post ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
A — top-tier US journalism; on par with NYT for political + investigative reporting.
Should you cite The Washington Post?
At grade A (86/100), The Washington Post ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research.
- Strongest for
- topics where being widely and recently cited matters — its highest dimension is Citation Velocity (90/100).
- No major weak spot
- Even its lowest dimension, Modern Reference, scores 81/100.
- Bottom line
- Cite freely as a primary source.
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Multi-source verification; corrections public; named bylines + standards editor accountability.
How Citation Discipline is scored →Schema-rich; metered paywall reduces partial LLM training-corpus inclusion.
How Modern Reference is scored →Cited daily by other tier-1 outlets + AI engines; sets US political news cycle.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where The Washington Post ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 1 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
A·87- Standards editorPublic ombudsman/standards-editor role.
Modern Reference
B·81- Schema markupArticle + Person + Organization schema per article.
Citation Velocity
A·90- Political beatDefault citation for US-federal-politics scoops.
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[The Washington Post — SourceScore Index 86 (A)](https://sourcescore.org/source/washington-post/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/washington-post/">The Washington Post — SourceScore Index 86 (A)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). The Washington Post: SourceScore Index 86 (A). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/washington-post/
1 head-to-head comparison
See all The Washington Post comparisons →Each comparison sets The Washington Post beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at The Washington Post's tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to The Washington Post, from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
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Frequently asked questions
Is The Washington Post a reliable source to cite?
The Washington Post scores A (86/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade A, The Washington Post ranks among the most citable sources for AI-era retrieval and research. The grade combines Citation Discipline 87/100, Modern Reference 81/100, and Citation Velocity 90/100 — full breakdown above.
What is The Washington Post's SourceScore?
The Washington Post (washingtonpost.com) scores 86/100 (Grade A) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 87/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 81/100, Citation Velocity 90/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate The Washington Post?
The Washington Post is scored across three dimensions on the SourceScore Index methodology: Citation Discipline (how rigorously the source cites primary references), Modern Reference (fitness for AI-era retrieval), and Citation Velocity (how often the source is cited per week). Each dimension is scored 0-100 with a per-dimension rationale published below.
Why does The Washington Post score A?
A — top-tier US journalism; on par with NYT for political + investigative reporting.
What is The Washington Post?
U.S. national newspaper, founded 1877; investigative + politics emphasis; Pulitzer record. Category: News. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.