The decision made by The Washington Post’s billionaire owner Jeff Bezos to adopt a libertarian vision for the publication’s opinion sections has led to at least two high-profile resignations, NPR reports.
In a Feb. 26 memo, Bezos alerted editors that the paper will “be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
As a result, opinions editor David Shipley, who was recruited from Bloomberg Opinions in 2022 by the Amazon owner, resigned.
According to an anonymous source, the editor opted for a “broader, pluralistic place,” while Bezos pushed for “a focused [opinion] report.” “I am of
America and for America, and proud to be so,” he wrote in an attempt to justify the decision. “And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else.”According to a source, Shipley, who did not speak to NPR, told Bezos that the move would “violate the Post‘s promise of holding power to account.”
The Washington Post has been mired in controversy since Bezos’ decision to terminate a presidential endorsement of Kamala Harris resulted in hundreds of thousands of subscriber cancellations.
The op-ed move triggered not only Shipley to step away. Veteran journalist and acclaimed biographer David Maraniss, who has worked with the Post for more than 40 years, said in a post on Bluesky that as long as Bezos owns the paper, he doesn’t want any part of it.
“One pernicious step after another, Bezos encroached on the Post editorial policy. Today he seized it fully,” he wrote. “The old Washington Post is gone. I’ll never write for it again as long as he’s the owner.”
One pernicious step after another, Bezos encroached on the Post editorial policy. Today he seized it fully. The old Washington Post is gone. I’ll never write for it again as long as he’s the owner.
— David Maraniss (@davidmaraniss.bsky.social) February 26, 2025 at 10:13 AM
A number of former and current Post team members shared similar thoughts on numerous social media platforms. In a post on LinkedIn, former senior managing editor Cameron Barr wrote that
Bezos’ op-ed decision prompted him to end his “professional association” with the publication. He called the changes “an unacceptable erosion of its commitment to publishing a healthy diversity of opinion and argument.”The writer of the Post’s “How to Read This Chart” newsletter, Philip Bump, wrote “what the actual f**k” just minutes after the memo was sent out, according to CNN, while economy reporter Jeff Stein claimed the changes are a “massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos.”
“I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage, but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know,” Stein wrote in a deleted X post.
what the actual f*ck
— Philip Bump (@pbump.com) February 26, 2025 at 9:36 AM
While CEO and publisher Will Lewis told his staff that the Post‘s changes are “not about siding with any political party,” but more so “about being crystal clear about what we stand for as a newspaper,” it was reported that he told Bezos that the op-ed change would hurt the paper more than revitalize it.
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