Jeff Bezos gags The Washington Post’s opinion section

Established in 1877, The Washington Post is (or was) seen as one of the most well-regarded newspapers in the US.

However, last week its owner made a shocking announcement that angered its readers so much that more than 75,000 of its digital subscribers cancelled their subscriptions. I was one of them.

Amazon billionaire Jezz Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013. You can imagine the concern amongst staff and readers when that was announced but Bezos was known to have left the editors pretty much to their own devices, reportedly only minimally involved every couple of weeks.

However, his relative hands-off approach shifted dramatically last year when Bezos stopped The Washington Post from endorsing Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. It was the first time since the 1980s that the newspaper didn’t endorse a presidential candidate. Of course, the move indicated Bezos wanted to be in favour with Trump. According to NPR, between then and Election Day, more than 300,000 subscribers – some 12% of its digital subscribers - cancelled their subscription.

Not concerned with the threat of losing more, the billionaire made an even more shocking decision last week, though in line with recent moves by billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg to cosy up to Trump.

Last Wednesday Bezos revealed that he would radically transform the paper's opinion pages so that opinions that support and defend “personal liberties” and “free markets” would be welcome, and other viewpoints would be "left to be published by others”.

"We'll cover other topics too of course," Bezos wrote in a note to staffers that he posted publicly X, "but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others".

The decision clearly shows he doesn’t want his newspaper to criticise the Trump administration, which he has given $1 million to since October. Bezos’s Amazon and his space company Blue Origin has contracts with the federal government worth billions of dollars annually.

The move led to the immediate resignation of opinion editor David Shipley. According to NPR, he tried to persuade Bezos to drop the plans, according to a person with direct knowledge.

The decision also led to criticism from associate editor David Maraniss and former executive editor Marty Baron. Baron called the move "craven" and told Zeteo News that Bezos, whom he praised extensively in his 2023 memoir, was "basically fearful" of President Trump.

Marty Baron, the regarded former editor of the Washington Post, said in an interview with the Guardian that Jeff Bezos's announcement that the newspaper’s opinion section would narrow its editorial focus was a “betrayal of the very idea of free expression” that had left him “appalled”.

In an interview with the Guardian, Baron also said: “I don’t think that [Bezos] wants an editorial page that’s regularly going after Donald Trump.” 

Bezos’s announcement was met with criticism and resulted in the departure of the newspaper’s opinions editor, David Shipley. Baron, who was executive editor of the Washington Post from 2012 until 2021 and is one of the most esteemed figures in American journalism, blasted Bezos’s decision.

What an actual horror show for journalism and free speech. I can only imagine the journalists at the Washington Post will be bearing it all through gritted teeth.