Jeff, You Own the Post. Pay For It.

Jeff Bezos’s announcement on Elon Musk’s X that henceforth the Washington Post’s editorials and its opinions section will be devoted exclusively to issues of personal liberties and free markets means that the enterprise will reflect only his personal values and vision – or else. David Shipley, the opinions editor, resigned.

Bezos wrote:

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 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 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. I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void. Jeff.

The Post’s situation has been a matter of mostly fretful attention since the rumors and then the revelation that it was losing money, the upheavals around Will Lewis’s hiring as publisher and especially since Bezos killed the presidential endorsement of Kamala Harris and the now departing Shipley’s refusal to run an Ann Telnaes’s editorial cartoon mocking Bezos’s obsequious pivot to the Trump era.

What now?

The endorsement flap cost the Post 250,000 subscribers. Whatever else this announcement about the opinions section will do, it will not solve the financial issues – and will almost certainly make them worse.

So take the business crisis off the table. Bezos paid $250 million for the Post and whatever he has invested since is a pittance of what he can afford.

Jeff, reap the losses you incur, and you can do whatever you want with the Washington Post.

This bottom line is ignominious. However, it is the result of what Jeff Bezos’s ownership now demands.