Owner Jeff Bezos tore up the opinion pages of The Washington Post on Wednesday, announcing the section would become the mouthpiece for two conservative pillars: free markets and personal liberties.
In an email to Post staffers, Bezos said the paper‘s opinion section would be “writing every day in support and defense of” the two topics.
“We’ll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others,” he wrote to staffers.
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Opinions editor David Shipley will also step down, 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,” Bezos wrote. “Today, the internet does that job.“
Bezos said he offered Shipley an opportunity to stay and execute his new vision for the section.
CEO Will Lewis praised Bezos’ decision in his own memo to staffers for “clearly and succinctly spelling out what we stand for at The Washington Post.”
Lewis said the move was “not about siding with any political party” but “about being crystal clear about what we stand for as a newspaper.” He thanked Shipley for his contributions to the paper said his last day will be Friday.
“David’s replacement will be announced in due course,” he said, according to Semafor. “It will be someone who is wholehearted in their support for free markets and personal liberties.”
The move was immediately rebuked by some Post staffers online, who questioned whether the billionaire owner’s meddling would extend to the paper’s news arm.
“Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today—makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there,” Jeff Stein, the paper’s chief economic correspondent, wrote on X. “I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of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.”
