David Shipley, the WaPo opinion editor, resigned rather than lead the poisoned opinion section. Bezos offered Shipley the opportunity to continue, but Shipley declined, stating that he could not fully commit to the new direction.
News sources:
The move was received by some as an indication that Bezos is making decisions for the storied news outlet with an eye toward avoiding retaliation by President Donald Trump. Bezos, though, cast the change as a modernization from the days when newspapers offered opinions on a broad range of topics. Now, he said, “the internet does that job.”
“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote in his post, adding that the new topics “are right for America. I also believe that these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion.” Opinions editor David Shipley resigned rather than lead the shift, Bezos said.
“Bezos argues for personal liberties. But his news organization now will forbid views other than his own in its opinion section,” wrote Marty Baron, Buzbee’s predecessor at the paper, in a statement first reported by The Daily Beast. “There is no doubt in my mind that he is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests.”
“This is what Oligarch ownership of the media looks like,” Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., posted on X, Musk’s platform “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.”
So, the WaPo editorial pages have gone the way of the WSJ editorial pages, radical right, authoritarian, demagogic, kleptocratic and shamelessly mendacious. My subscription ends in April. I won't renew it. Years ago I ended my subscription to the WSJ for exactly the same reason.
