Event

On 26 February Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos informed staff that the opinion section would focus on ‘personal liberties and free markets’ and that “we’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others”.1

His reasoning that although newspapers “might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section” … “today, the internet does that job”.2 The announced change only impacts the opinion section, news is unaffected.

Context

Bezos purchased the Washington Post in 2013 for $250m. He kept Marty Baron in place as executive editor, and when he retired in 2021, replaced him with Sally Buzbee of the Associated Press. Since then, he has shifted from picking figures that represented journalistic excellence to figures that represent acquiescence to ownership. Buzbee’s tenure lasted until 2024, when Bezos’s new publisher William Lewis “pressur[ed] Buzbee not to run articles about the phone-tapping scandal in British journalism, a scandal in which he is said to have played an important role”, according to Columbia Journalism Review.3 Buzbee was replaced by Matt Murray, former Wall Street Journal editor.

In 2024, Bezos directed the Washington Post not to endorse Kamala Harris for president. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision”, Bezos wrote in an op-ed.4 The decision was widely criticised, including internally. Three editorial board members stepped down from their positions over it.5

Reactions

Internal

The change in direction led to the resignation of David Shipley, who had been the Opinion Editor at the Post. Bezos said that he told Shipley that “if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no”.6 Shipley’s email to staff announcing his resignation did not speak to the issue.7

Columnist Marc Fisher asked Shipley whether they would be allowed to write on the change. He got no answer.8 Erik Wemple, media critic in the Opinion section at the Washington Post, had his column on the changes spiked.9 Former columnist Gene Weingarten wrote on his substack that, when reached, “[Wemple] said something I’d never before heard from a him or any other media critic: No comment, not on or off the record. He offered no hints. No winks or nudges, no nothing. He apologized, but I understood entirely. The atmosphere in the newsroom is miasmic, poisoned by fear and distrust”.10

William Lewis emailed staff to “thank [Bezos] for clearly and succinctly spelling out what we stand for at The Washington Post” and that he “cannot wait to see it brought to life in our opinion section”.11

Cameron Barr, former Senior Managing Editor who was on a retainer contract, resigned, as did David Maraniss, associate editor.12

Ruth Marcus, columnist, associate editor and former interim Opinions editor, resigned when the Post refused to publish her column criticising the change.13 In her letter of resignation she wrote that the change “threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable.”14

NPR reported that 75,000 subscribers cancelled their subscriptions in first two days following the announcement. However, though there has been a dip at the Post after this and the loss of 300,000 subscribers following the decision not to endorse Kamala Harris,15 Folkenflik says that WaPo increased its subscribers by 400,000 between the two events “often at highly discounted rates”. The piece says that WaPo does not have fewer subscribers now than before the non-endorsement, but it has fewer than it otherwise could.16

External

Marty Baron, former editor of the Post, told The Guardian that it was “a betrayal of the very idea of free expression” and left him “appalled”.17 He also said that Bezos was “minimally involved in the editorial page” during his own tenure, and that at the time Bezos believed in a plurality of opinion. Separately, he told Margaret Sullivan that the move was contrary to his experience of Bezos, and that he was “sad and disgusted”.18

Former WaPo columnist Gene Weingarten described Bezos’s note as “vague but revoltingly obvious … The Opinions section is being told what their opinions are to be, from now on.”

Former WaPo media columnist Margaret Sullivan called the move a “death knell”, saying that while owners often “exert their will” on opinion sections, this was somthing more. “What is clear is that Bezos no longer wants to own an independent news organization. He wants a megaphone and a political tool that will benefit his own commercial interests”.19

Joshua Benton also recognised that owners run opinion sections, but wrote that the “scale of the hypocrisy on display here is eye-watering”. His piece in Nieman lab contrasts Bezos’s words and actions before and after the Harris non-endorsement. He points out that:

  • Then Bezos said didn’t want to give the impression of a bias; now he donates significant money to the Trump campaign and paid $40m for a Melania documentary;
  • Then he said his principles prevented his business interests from becoming a conflict for the Post (“I do not and will not push my personal interest”); now he is changing the opinion direction to implicitly support his business interests (“free markets”).
  • Then he said the Post needed to stand apart from “unresearched podcasts and social media barbs” – the dreck of the internet – and now he praises the internet for offering diversity of opinion and giving the Post the space to step back from it.20

Andrew Rosenthal in CJR described Bezos’s statement that the internet delivers opinion diversity as “shockingly naive or cynical” and said that the “personal liberties and free markets” position is “at best, a gauzy and vague term, and at worst a dog whistle for right wing positions”.21

David Plotz on the Slate Political Gabfest said that it was entirely his right to give the Opinion Section an ‘idiosyncratic’ direction, even if that is to please the Trump administration, since he did buy the paper. He said that would be “much more worried if [he] saw [Bezos] making the same kind of demands of the news section, which he doesn’t seem to be making”.22 After pushback from Emily Bazelon, he said that he “does not see anything other than a really smart paper doing really smart work across a wide variety of topics.” Bazelon responded that that is “a tribute to the people who work there, but I’m not sure that it means that Jeff Bezos is actually their ally and on their side and being a good corporate owner”.23

Timeline

26/02/25Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos informed staff of the new direction.24
Opinion Editor David Shipley resigned.25
27/02/25Erik Wemple column on changes spiked.26
10/03/25Columnist Ruth Marcus resigned.27

Footnotes

  1. Washington Post staff. 2025. Post owner Bezos announces shift in opinions section; Shipley to leave. The Washington Post. 26 February. https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2025/02/26/washington-post-bezos-opinions-section/; Bezos J. 2025. I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning. X.com. 26 February. https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/1894757287052362088 ↩︎
  2. Bezos J. 2025. I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning. X.com. 26 February. https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/1894757287052362088 ↩︎
  3. Rosenthal A. 2025. From Marty Baron to Robber Baron. Columbia Journalism Review. 27 February. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/jeff-bezos-editorial-opinion-washington-post-personal-liberties-free-markets-right-wing-heel-turn.php ↩︎
  4. Bezos J. 2024. The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media. The Washington Post. 28 October. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezos-washington-post-trust/ ↩︎
  5. Gold H. 2024. Three Washington Post editorial board members step down amid wave of canceled subscriptions over non-endorsement. CNN. 28 October. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/28/media/washington-post-endorsement-subscribers-resign/index.html ↩︎
  6. Bezos J. 2025. I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning. X.com. 26 February. https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/1894757287052362088 ↩︎
  7. Weingarten G. 2025. (Heart) Breaking News. The Gene Pool. 26 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/heart-breaking-news ↩︎
  8. Weingarten G. 2025. (Heart) Breaking News. The Gene Pool. 26 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/heart-breaking-news ↩︎
  9. Weingarten G. 2025. Spiked. The Gene Pool. 28 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/spiked ↩︎
  10. Weingarten G. 2025. Spiked. The Gene Pool. 28 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/spiked ↩︎
  11. Weingarten G. 2025. (Heart) Breaking News. The Gene Pool. 26 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/heart-breaking-news ↩︎
  12. Weingarten G. 2025. (Heart) Breaking News. The Gene Pool. 26 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/heart-breaking-news ↩︎
  13. Mullin B. 2025. Washington Post columnist resigns after paper spiked criticism of Jeff Bezos. New York Times. 10 March. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/business/media/washington-post-ruth-marcus-resigns.html; Weingarten G. 2025. Sigh, vol. IX. The Gene Pool. 11 March. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/sigh-vol-ix ↩︎
  14. Weingarten G. 2025. Sigh, vol. IX. The Gene Pool. 11 March. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/sigh-vol-ix ↩︎
  15. Folkenflik D. 2024. ‘Washington Post’ won’t endorse in White House race for first time since 1980s. NPR. 25 October. https://www.npr.org/2024/10/25/nx-s1-5165353/washington-post-presidential-endorsement-trump-harris ↩︎
  16. Folkenflik D. 2025. Bezos’ changes at ‘Washington Post’ lead to mass subscription cancellations – again. NPR. 28 February. https://www.npr.org/2025/02/28/nx-s1-5312819/washington-post-bezos-subscriptions-cancellations ↩︎
  17. Betts A. 2025. Ex-Washington Post editor Marty Baron rebukes Bezos: ‘betrayal of free expression’. The Guardian. 28 February. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/28/marty-baron-jeff-bezos-washington-post ↩︎
  18. Sullivan M. 2025. Jeff Bezos is muzzling the Washington Post’s opinion section. That’s a death knell. The Guardian. 26 February. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/26/jeff-bezos-washington-post-opinion ↩︎
  19. Sullivan M. 2025. Jeff Bezos is muzzling the Washington Post’s opinion section. That’s a death knell. The Guardian. 26 February. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/feb/26/jeff-bezos-washington-post-opinion ↩︎
  20. Benton J. 2025. Jeff Bezos declares opinions questioning “free markets” no longer welcome at The Washington Post. Nieman Lab. 26 February. https://www.niemanlab.org/2025/02/jeff-bezos-declares-opinions-questioning-free-markets-no-longer-welcome-at-the-washington-post/ ↩︎
  21. Rosenthal A. 2025. From Marty Baron to Robber Baron. Columbia Journalism Review. 27 February. https://www.cjr.org/analysis/jeff-bezos-editorial-opinion-washington-post-personal-liberties-free-markets-right-wing-heel-turn.php ↩︎
  22. Slate. 2025. The “So Europe is our enemy now?” edition. Slate Political Gabfest. 27 February. https://slate.com/transcripts/eEtlbmg0cFVKRUlRTHl1Q1dDNHEzOVVOdE9kT1JYZFBNVzhpZ0lHcmxZOD0= ↩︎
  23. Slate. 2025. The “So Europe is our enemy now?” edition. Slate Political Gabfest. 27 February. https://slate.com/transcripts/eEtlbmg0cFVKRUlRTHl1Q1dDNHEzOVVOdE9kT1JYZFBNVzhpZ0lHcmxZOD0= ↩︎
  24. Bezos J. 2025. I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning. X.com. 26 February. https://x.com/JeffBezos/status/1894757287052362088 ↩︎
  25. Weingarten G. 2025. (Heart) Breaking News. The Gene Pool. 26 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/heart-breaking-news ↩︎
  26. Weingarten G. 2025. Spiked. The Gene Pool. 28 February. https://geneweingarten.substack.com/p/spiked ↩︎
  27. Mullin B. 2025. Washington Post columnist resigns after paper spiked criticism of Jeff Bezos. New York Times. 10 March. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/10/business/media/washington-post-ruth-marcus-resigns.html ↩︎