If you think the Atlantic is on the "liberal end" and the WaPo is on the "neutral/conservative" end of the news spectrum, I think you have a fuzzy understanding of the political divides in US news sources.
True, perhaps I am wrong in my classification. Maybe not fair to say WaPo is conservative. And The Atlantic does give space to neo-liberal ideas. It’s very biased by how and which stories have stuck in my mind from these sources.