Bezos Outlines Twin Pillars of Washington Post Editorial Page

WaPo will support ‘personal liberties and free markets,’ owner Jeff Bezos says as Opinions editor David Shipley leaves beleaguered paper

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announced Wednesday that the paper’s opinion section will now defend “personal liberties and free markets” and ousted the section’s editor, David Shipley.

“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote in an email to the Post staffers. “We’ll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

Bezos said that he offered Shipley the opportunity to “lead this new chapter” but that the editor’s answer had to be either “hell yes” or “no.” Shipley decided to step away.

Shipley, who had committed to bringing “diverse voices” to the Post, caved to left-wing pressure in November 2023 and removed a cartoon that lampooned Hamas.

Bezos’s announcement comes after he caused an internal uproar last year by blocking the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris. A number of high-profile staffers quit in protest, and over 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions. The beleaguered paper has announced dozens of layoffs amid the exodus of top talent and mounting financial troubles.

Bezos told staffers on Wednesday that he is “of America and for America, and proud to be so.”

“A big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else,” the email reads. “Freedom is ethical—it minimizes coercion—and practical—it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.”

Jeff Stein, the Post‘s chief economics reporter, slammed Bezos’s “massive encroachment” into the paper’s opinion section, saying the announcement “makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there.”

Bezos in his announcement defended the shift, saying, “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.”