Where Jeff Bezos Went Wrong With The Washington Post

As March comes to a close, it’s worth reflecting on the state of press freedom, a topic that remains as urgent as ever. Martin Baron, a distinguished journalist and a member of IFEP’s International Advisory Board, has long been at the forefront of this fight. He also, quite literally, wrote a book on Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post. 

In September, IFEP hosted a book event with him for Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post. Now, just months later, it is striking to see how much has changed since that discussion.

With a new Trump administration and sweeping changes at the Post, Baron revisits these themes in a poignant piece for The Atlantic. Building on insights from his critically acclaimed 2023 book, his latest work examines the mounting challenges of the press, the increasing threats to journalistic integrity, and what these shifts mean for democracy.

In his article, Baron critiques Jeff Bezos’s handling of The Washington Post, highlighting a stark shift in the newspaper’s approach under his ownership. “It’s been infuriating to observe the damage [Bezos] has inflicted in recent months on the reputation of a newspaper whose investigative reporting has served as a bulwark against Trump’s most transgressive impulses. All the signs lately point to a determined effort by Bezos to either placate Trump or please him outright...”

He details a new directive issued by Bezos, banning any opinion articles in The Post that don’t align with his ideology of “personal liberties and free markets.” This heavy-handed move led to the resignation of the editorial-page editor. Trump later revealed that he had dined with Bezos on the very night the Post owner enforced his latest directive.

“The most fundamental American liberty is free expression,” Baron writes. “Newspapers such as the Post have long honored that constitutional right by welcoming a wide range of views in the opinion section, whether their leadership agrees with them or not, so as to encourage civil public debate. Bezos was now decreeing that views out of alignment with his own ideology would not see the light of day in territory that he controls. The paper that proclaims itself to be on the side of democracy had taken a step that was distinctly undemocratic.”

Baron’s piece is a must-read for anyone concerned about the future of press freedom and the shifting landscape of American journalism.

Read the full article here.

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