Jeff Bezos Says Washington Post Opinion Page Will Focus on ‘Personal Liberties and Free Markets’
Bezos also let go editor David Shipley when he refused to lead the new opinion pages.
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announced a massive overhaul of the paper’s opinion pages.
We are going to 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.
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. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning:
I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too…
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) February 26, 2025
Jennifer Rubin fled WaPo’s editorial section in January, whining about Bezos and President Donald Trump.
Bezos said he asked David Shipley to lead the opinion pages. Shipley said no:
I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no.” After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.
People will blame Trump and Elon Musk because they refuse to take responsibility or look inward.
The legacy media has been bleeding readers due to the obvious bias.
But it’s not just the bias.
The opinion writers, mostly the rest of the paper, talk down to non-leftists. They have a high and mighty attitude and think they’re better than everyone.
They are our betters!
Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong made similar changes to his paper’s opinion section. Mariel Garza resigned as editorial editor when Soon-Shiong didn’t allow them to make a presidential candidate.
Soon-Shiong explained his desire for a “balanced” editorial section.
“I will work towards making our paper and media fair and balanced so that all voices are heard and we can respectfully exchange every American’s view ..from left to right to the center,” Soon-Shiong wrote on X. “Coming soon. A new Editorial Board. Trust in media is critical for a strong democracy.”
Proud that we posted this letter from one of our readers on X. When the President has won the vote of the majority of Americans then ALL voices must be heard. Opinions are just that. I will work towards making our paper and media fair and balanced so that all voices are heard…
— Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (@DrPatSoonShiong) November 11, 2024
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Comments
Considering his readership, the only “personal liberty” readers may be interested in is canceling their subscriptions.
So be it. Now that newspapers have digital subscriptions, his idea may be that he will gain more national subscribers than lose Georgetown Cocktail Circuit A-listers.
All hat, no cattle.
Paraphrase by Paula:
“It’s about money. I like money. There’s no need to lose money.”
Hmm. “There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear….” well you know.
I think what is going on is Bezos actually picked up and read a copy of his own paper and was like WTF.
I think he wants to sell the waPoop and knows he can’t sell that smelly old rag with the losers he has working there.
He’s rich, but even the rich don’t want to be losing tons of money, after a while it adds up.
IMO it is years too late to restore credibility. But, what I think is happening is that, no matter how rich you are, eventually losing $100M a year becomes more than a “vanity project”.
It’s time we stop
Hey, what’s that sound?
Everybody look, what’s going down?
Step outta line, The Man come and take you away.
Bezos don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
I see there are a lot of ‘us’ here now.
Yup, we’re all bozos on this bus.
If it materializes that the WP is focussed on personal liberties and free markets I might even subscribe.
Big IF.
They refused to platform the Firemusk.org ad. What sign do you want?
“Common Cause @CommonCause
Jeff Bezos’ Washington Post didn’t want you to see our ad questioning who’s in charge of this White House. We wont’t stop holding power accountable.”
Did you ever question who was in charge of the last White House?
Because the entire country still wants to know anything you found out.
Jeff Bezos has already shown his character, traditional media already cut their own throats, there are already established alternative media, so why would I want to even consider WP?
“legacy media” has become an outdated term; the new word is: “Zombie media”
The elderly (the 65+ group) still have their eyes glued to (good-looking) TV meatheads who were unable to find a job in Hollywood;
the intelligent youngsters (the 18-65 year olds) have obtained their news from websites;
the “intelligensia” are seen, heads drooping on Sundays after church, over ink-stained hands (and noses – the tips are really black, not brown, as some might think)
the children are still having their minds molded by teachers’ union talking heads;
the rest obtain their current events by word-of-mouth in beer joints, mah jongg tables; golf and bowling buddies.
Plenty of us “elderly” gave up on TV and the media long ago. Why else do you see so many oldsters at Trump rallies? Not because we’re tuned into NBC.
And a huge number of “intelligent youngsters” appear to get their information from Tiktok and influencers, rather than information sites.
The intelligensia? Wouldn’t be caught dead in church, unless there is a Pride banner over the pulpit.
the “intelligent youngsters” obtaining their information from Tiktok and influencers have been (by definition) relegated to “the rest”
Check out all those intelligent youngsters marching at colleges with amazingly noisy keffiyehs.
In my crowd (I’m hitting 76 in a few weeks) I know of ONE who takes everything he sees on the major networks as gospel.
Another, while a lefty, is what I call a THINKING lefty. He is capable of holding a conversation without resorting to cliche or parroting what he hears or reads.
The other has made a big show of dropping our 63 year friendship because I just cannot share his sniveling and whining quoting of everything he hears. He really IS convinced he is losing Social Security and Medicare,. and that he will be rounded up like the rest of the Jews.
A third one (Christian) stopped watching the nets decades ago, and also holds the same views I do.
I’d narrow that tar brush if I were you.
I haven’t quite made it into the “elderly” group but I “cut the cord” before it was a thing 25 years ago and I canceled my newspaper subscription in the 90’s.
Bezos fundamentally changed retail with Amazon.
Leftists generally want to destroy their competition through lawfare and regulation rather than duking it out in the public square, but Bezos seems to understand that progressivism is hostile to financial success. Maybe he is actually going through a conversion process.
I’ve never understood the mechanism where the ultra-wealthy business CEOs who benefited from capitalism –and should be smart enough to realize it — become brainless donors of ultra-lefty causes… but Bezos is a prime example, as is Gates, I’ve had it suggested to me that they are ultra-wealthy due to processes diametrically opposed to capitalism (like Pelosi), but I have a hard time identifying that classification to too many nameable examples.
“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.”
Well, that blows his chances at membership at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Is the hat supposed to make him look more “normal”? Or just less like a supervillain? (Maybe he finally read that website about the “Top 100 things I would do if I were an Evil Overlord”?)
Is one of those things “buy a hat”?
https://youtu.be/Zeki4JUZsMQ?si=FRimbIl8kIOTNp08
Fur shure.
He’s just protecting his wax job.
Having driven out most of the competition and achieved a near monopoly (and raised their prices so they aren’t so cheap anymore) Bezos wants to make nice with Trump so they don’t break Amazon apart through anti-trust.
Amazon should be broken apart into multiple businesses but then again I’m in favor of breaking a number of these companies apart.
Almost all individual liberties flow from private property rights. The WaPo, and all of the idiot politicians that Bezos has supported, are fully AGAINST private property rights. There is going to be a bit of a problem …
Give credit where credit is do. Bezos is saying the “right” things now, and in a very public way. Let’s hope he follows through.
Sure, even if he does this every other page in the paper is still fully leftist
“Jeff Bezos Says Washington Post Opinion Page Will Focus on ‘Personal Liberties and Free Markets’”
However, he doesn’t say he will get them right, because I don’t think the WaPo is capable of it.
I’d no sooner trust the WaPo to teach America about personal liberties and free markets than I would trust Paris Hilton to lead our local Bible Study.
This is no more promising than the astroturf gunkapos who start “organizations of hunters and sport shooters who believe in common sense gun safety,” They just want to control the topic and redefine it in the way that serves THEIR ends.
The problem for Bezos is that “corporate culture” really is a thing, and it is very VERY VERY hard to change.
Trump faces same problem in D.C. of course, and is doing his best to root out as much of the old culture that he can.
Bezos is going to need to replace an entire level of management with fresh outside faces in order to succeed.
It really is a rare opportunity where the old Vietnam War cliche
It was necessary to destroy the village to save it.”
is actually true.
Of course, you’re not really saving it. You’re “urbanly renewing” it. It’s the cobalt bomb approach: save the “neighborhood” (infrastructure), just replace every one of the neighbors
Se we can expect it to look like reason.com or Fee.org?More libertarian?
I’d be on board with that.
The bulk of WaPo’s remaining print subscribership is inside the Beltway. Any attempt to do such a thing honestly would be the world’s first genuine empty-the-magazine suicide.