The Washington Post has released a report in which its own staff discusses the things they like and do not like about working at the Washington Post.

As it is a “diversity report,” it emphasizes race and gender, but as this is the Post, of course it does. However, a great deal of other material is covered.

On page five of the report (PDF link), for instance, a Post staffer complains about a perceived “anti-religious bias in the newsroom.” The staffer who complained noted that some of her colleagues, including her boss, mocked the late Pope during media coverage of his funeral.

On page eight, a staffer is reported believing “the staff should stop supporting partisan agendas, and [the staffer] cited the recent presidential election, where her co-workers seemed to be in favor of one candidate.”

Some of the paragraphs are disconcerting, such as one on page 25 about a young female reporter who complained that it was “awkward” to be partnered professionally with a colleague who is older, male and of another race, and the accompanying recommendation (by the report’s authors) to management that her desire to work with people based on her preferences for race and gender should be accommodated. (If one can’t even work with people who are different, how can one faithfully understand and accurately communicate disparate points of view in one’s stories?)

As the report is not especially flattering to the Post, despite an occasional self-congratulatory comment within it, I was planning on commending the paper for making it public. However, the last line of the document reads: “…not developed or intended for distribution or dissemination outside the Washington Post.”