In a move seen by many to be appeasing Donald Trump, Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has announced the restriction of opinions at the paper.
The Washington Post’s opinion section is about to include… fewer opinions.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who purchased the paper in 2013, announced that the opinion pages would now consult just two themes: “personal liberties and free markets”.
Making the announcement on X, the billionaire wrote: “We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Bezos, who made the decision for the Post to not make a presidential endorsement for the first time days before Trump was re-elected, defended his decision to restrict opinions at the paper.
“There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views,” the 61-year-old billionaire wrote. “Today, the internet does that job.”
He continued that America’s success was defined by its “freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else”. As a driving force for the Post’s revamped opinion section, he opined simply that “freedom is ethical”.
David Shipley, the Post’s opinions editor, has resigned in response to Bezos’ move, having been offered the opportunity to continue leading the section.
“I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no.” After careful consideration, David decided to step away,” Bezos wrote.
The Post’s publisher and CEO William Lewis sent out a staff email to announce that the change was not about “siding with any political party”. Lewis wrote that this “is about being crystal clear about what we stand for as a newspaper”.
Bezos’ move has been read as an attempt to shift the paper away from criticism of the newly elected Donald Trump. Elon Musk, the South African billionaire owner of X and key figure within the Trump administration, asserted his approval, writing “Bravo, @JeffBezos!” on social media. Conservative commentator Charlie Kirk said: “Good! The culture is changing rapidly for the better.”
Amazon was one of the many tech firms that gave $1 million donations to Trump’s inauguration, and alongside the Post’s refusal to make a presidential endorsement (having endorsed only Democrats since 1976), Bezos has joined the ranks of the many tech billionaires kowtowing to the new executive-in-chief.
The announcement, weeks before the November election, sparked a wave of resignations and thousands of subscription cancellations. Journalists Molly Roberts, David E. Hoffman and Mili Mitra announced their resignation after the paper pulled away from their anticipated endorsement of Kamala Harris.
At the time, Shipley said he’d tried to convince Bezos to agree to make the endorsement. “I failed,” he told staffers at a meeting with the editorial section. Now, he joins the ranks of the many who have turned their back on the paper.
“Bezos argues for personal liberties. But his news organization now will forbid views other than his own in its opinion section,” wrote Martin Baron, the editor of the Post from 2012 to his retirement in 2021. “There is no doubt in my mind that he is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests.”
In an interview with independent news organisation Zeteo in response to the decision, Baron didn’t mince his words on Bezos.
“It’s craven. He’s basically fearful of Trump. He has decided that, as timid and tepid as the editorials have been, they’ve been too tough on Trump.”
“He’s saying they’re going to have an opinion page with one point of view. That’s an invitation to the editorial writers and the columnists to take a hike. That’s really extraordinary (considering) everything he has said in the past. It’s a Post that’s not going to be for all of America. At a time when we’re talking about freedom and democracy, he saying there will not be freedom and liberty on our own pages,” Baron continued.
Senator Bernie Sanders weighed in with a post on X: “This is what Oligarch ownership of the media looks like,” he wrote. “The second-richest guy in the world, Bezos, owns The Washington Post. He has now declared that the editorial page of that paper is going Trump right-wing. Surprise, Mr. Musk agrees. We must support independent media.”
