Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, has said the newspaper’s opinion section will write “every day in support and defence of… personal liberties and free markets” – appearing to align the paper with the US political right.
In an email to staff that he shared on X, Mr Bezos added: “We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Mr Bezos, who also owns Amazon, has typically had a hands-off approach to the paper’s editorial policy since he bought the Post in 2013.
But this appeared to change during last year’s US presidential election when he blocked the Post’s editorial board from publishing an endorsement for Donald Trump’s rival Kamala Harris.
He also refused to publish a satirical cartoon in January that depicted Mr Bezos kneeling at the feet of a figure of Mr Trump offering him a bag of money.
The newspaper lost 250,000 subscribers after Mr Bezos blocked the endorsement of Ms Harris, with several employees resigning over Mr Bezos’s direction in recent months.
The day after the election, Mr Bezos congratulated Trump “on an extraordinary political comeback and decisive victory”, while Amazon was among the companies that donated $1m to Trump’s inauguration fund in what critics say is an effort to curry favour with the president.
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In today’s statement by Mr Bezos, he said the Post’s opinion editor David Shipley had “decided to step away” – but it is unclear if he resigned or was fired.
Mr Bezos said: “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. Today, the internet does that job.
“I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical.”
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He added: “A big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical – it minimises coercion – and practical – it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
“I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.”
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Jeff Stein, chief economics reporter at the Post, wrote on X after the email was published: “Massive encroachment by Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section – makes clear dissenting views will not be published.
“I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know.”
