'RIP WaPo': Journalists and historians react in horror to Bezos editorial coup

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is now directly meddling in his newspaper's editorial page, as he sent out a notice on Wednesday that he would no longer publish editorials critical of "personal liberties and free markets."

The announcement marked Bezos' most brazen attempt yet to interfere in the Post's internal affairs and many journalists, including some who still work for the Post, firmly rejected it. Bezos also announced editorial page head David Shipley had quit rather than carry out his demands.

"Massive encroachment by Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section - makes clear dissenting views will not be published," wrote Post reporter Jeff Stein on BlueSky. "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."

Post columnist Philip Bump posted shortly after the Bezos announcement, "What in the actual f--k?" although it is not clear if he was responding directly to the message that had been sent to Post staffers.

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Amanda Katz, a former senior editor at the Washington Post Opinions section, expressed horror at the move.

"RIP, WaPo," she wrote. "Just the saddest screenshots to get. An absolute abandonment of the principles of accountability of the powerful, justice, democracy, human rights, and accurate information that previously animated the section in favor of a white male billionaire’s self-interested agenda."

"Bezos destroying the post opinion pages is just another reminder: Conservatives think free speech is when they can say what they want and when you can say what they want," commented The Atlantic's Adam Serwer.

Historian David Maraniss, meanwhile, mourned the death of a long-valued institution.

"One pernicious step after another, Bezos encroached on the Post editorial policy," he wrote. "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."

And Cornell University historian David Glickman questioned whether Bezos knew anything about the history of "free markets" in the United States.

"Has Bezos studied American history at all?" he wondered. "Does he know anything about federal subsidies for railroad and canals? Does he understand the enormous government role in the creation of the Internet? There has been no point when 'freedom in the economic realm' existed in the form of pure 'free markets.'"