Washington Post opinion writers are not allowed to oppose free speech and free markets

Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post: Opening the World’s Largest Op-Edistance Newsroom to Public Views

The Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos, but he started shaping it more noticeably shortly before the president’s election in 2024. The Post did not deny the reports. The move was detrimental to the paper, but avoided angering Donald Trump, the Republican President who holds significant power over the fate of Bezos as well as its possible acquisition of TikTok. Lewis’ email tells employees that the new shift is “not about siding with any political party.”

Requests for comment were not responded to by Shipley. According to a person with direct knowledge, Bezos was told that the post’s promise of holding power to account wouldn’t be honored by the new approach.

Neither Bezos nor Lewis indicated there would be any changes to the Post’s news coverage. Bezos also says the opinion section will continue to cover topics unrelated to his two pillars.

The op-ed sections of newspapers have included opposing views for a long time. The term “op-ed” refers to pieces that are running opposite the editorial pages and often conflict with a publisher’s editorial line. That practice is outdated according to Bezos.

“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 said. “Today, the internet does that job.”

The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the Corresponding Editors of a Presidential Meeting: A Memo by David Bezos

An attendee who was not allowed to speak publicly said that at an hour long meeting with opinion writers, Shipley told them he did not know what was to come.

Bezos made a point in the memo to staffers. “I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” he wrote. A large part of America’s success has been the freedom that comes with it.

Later in the day, Murray sent a memo to the newsroom to underscore the point: “The independent and unbiased work of The Post’s newsroom remains unchanged, and we will continue to pursue engaging impactful journalism without fear or favor.” (Murray and Bezos did not reply to requests for comment.)

Post Associate Editor David Maraniss, a legendary journalist whose association with the newspaper stretches back more than four decades, wrote on Bluesky that he would never write for it again as long as Bezos owns it.

NPR talked to six people that had knowledge of the event. They had the ability to speak in anonymous fashion because they weren’t authorized to do so.

More recently, Bezos’ decision in October to kill the Harris editorial sparked a furor inside and outside the paper, leading editorial writers to resign and more than 300,000 people to cancel their digital subscriptions in a matter of days. (The Post says it has been able to win some subscribers back and garner some new subscribers in the opening weeks of Trump’s second term.)

As a practical matter, Shipley argued to Bezos, the Wall Street Journal’s highly pro-markets pages have had a similar policy for decades. As with the decision not to publish the endorsement of Harris, Shipley’s arguments fell on deaf ears.

Bezos wrote in a memo that he offered the editor the chance to lead the reformed sections. “If the answer wasn’t ‘hell yes’ then it had to be ‘no’,” Bezos wrote.

The Post has aggressively covered the new administration. But Bezos appears to have embraced the president’s return to power. Bezos personally paid $1 million toward Trump’s inaugural fund. He and his fiancée went to Mar-a-Lago to hang out with the Trumps. And, along with other digital chieftains, Bezos sat behind the president as he was sworn in for a second term.

Shipley’s two-and-a-half years have brought acclaim for the section, with two Pulitzer Prizes and two Loeb Awards. But his standing was deeply undercut by Bezos’s recent decisions, especially over the Harris endorsement.

When he decided not to publish a cartoon about Bezos, he told his colleagues he was making a decision because he felt that it was in the best interest of the paper. The cartoon depicts Bezos along with other tech giants.

“Not every editorial judgment is a reflection of a malign force”, said Shipley in a statement shared at the time. The decision was guided by the fact that we just published a column on the same topic as the cartoon and that we had already scheduled another column for publication. The only bias was against repetition.”

Veteran talent from both the opinion and news sides have left the paper since the news broke about the editorial. Post journalists left for the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and CNN among other outlets.

Will Lewis celebrated the change in direction on Wednesday. Lewis previously served for six years in the same role at the Journal, which is owned by Trump ally and conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch. He has been a supporter of the same approach at the Post.

Lewis was hired by Bezos because he thought Lewis could build better bridges to Trump and conservatives. Lewis worked for Murdoch for a decade, and he also worked for the Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

I’m thrilled to see the new clarity and transparency brought to life in our opinion section. Every Day,” Lewis said in a note to staff. This is not about aligning with a political party. Being clear about what we stand for is what this is about. Doing this is crucial to serving as a premier news publication across America and for all Americans.

is a senior tech and policy editor focused on VR, online platforms, and free expression. In recent years, Adi has covered video games, biohacking, and more for The Verge.

The changes under Bezos are similar to those under Patrick Soon-Shiong, who was the proprietor of the Los Angeles Times and blocked a Harris endorsement.

America is facing a lot of urgent and timely questions, which fit the new personally issued directive by Bezos. Are major tech companies like Amazon monopolies that distort fair market competition, and should the US government pursue sweeping antitrust cases that could break them up? Is the administration led by Trump who received a $1 million donation from Amazon and also attended the inauguration of Bezos going to continue to try and censor the media? There are so many possibilities.