Jeff Bezos has sparked outrage after announcing that the Washington Post’s opinion pages will focus solely on support for “personal liberties and free markets”, writes Bethan Sexton.
The Amazon executive chairman, who owns the publication, said he is ditching a traditional “broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views”.
He has also axed opinion editor David Shipley, apparently after he declined to support the new regime.
“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote on X yesterday.
“Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
“There was a time when a newspaper might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views.
“Today, the internet does that job.”
Mr Bezos’s decision to shift the paper to the Right has prompted scores of readers to cancel their subscription.
And it prompted anger among past and present journalists at the Post, including from its former editor Marty Baron who said the intervention was “craven”.
Mr Baron, who edited the publication from 2012 until 2021, told the Guardian: “I have always been grateful for how he stood up for The Post and an independent press against Trump’s constant threats to his business interest.
“Now I couldn’t be more sad and disgusted.”
He noted that only a few weeks ago, the Post described itself in an internal mission statement as intended for ‘all of America’.
“Now, its opinion pages will be open to only some of America, those who think exactly as he does,” Mr Baron added.
Jeff Stein, an economics reporter for the Post, wrote on X that the move was a “massive encroachment” which “makes clear dissenting views will not be published”.
It comes after Bezos prompted fury among his staff after he ditched a planned endorsement for Kamala Harris before last year’s election.
However, the decision has been lauded by Elon Musk, who wrote “Bravo Jeff Bezos” on X.
Photo: Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
