The free market just got a little more so today, thanks to the benevolent decree of one of the richest men who’s ever lived.
Seriously though, an email from Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to the newspaper’s staff is now saying the quiet part out loud: the newspaper will no longer tolerate opinions its billionaire backer disproves of.
“I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages,” the email begins. “We are going to be writing every day in support of 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,” Bezos continues. “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.”
The brave new pillars come in the aftermath of a 10 percent drop in subscribers from Bezos’ decision not to let the paper endorse a presidential candidate, which was widely decried as an egregious example of a media boss steering its coverage for his own personal benefit.
To say this latest announcement went over poorly might be an understatement. As a result of Bezos’ mandate of freedom, WaPo‘s opinion editor, David Shipley, announced his resignation.
A number of the paper’s current and former employees have condemned the decision, with former executive editor Marty Baron telling the Daily Beast he was “sad and disgusted” at Bezos’ decision to put his business interests over those of independent journalism.
“Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post‘s opinion section today,” wrote the Post’s lead economics journalist Jeff Stein. “[It] makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there.”
Despite harsh backlash, WaPo has long been eyed by media critics for its blatant conflicts of interests tied to the billionaire’s involvement, though that criticism has sometimes been overshadowed by the newspaper’s lipservice to vaguely progressive ideals.
If there’s one thing to praise the tech mogul for, its that he’s finally putting his cards on the table.
“I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America,” wrote the 3rd richest man in the world. “I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion.”
Credit where it’s due: it takes a lot of gall to make that claim as a man whose net worth eclipses that of most nations, enjoying a personal utopia in a country where billionaires own more than half the population combined.
While Bezos’ executive order may seem like a right turn for a staple of mainstream media, it might be better understood as a “mask off” moment, a rare but honest peek behind the curtain. When we look at his moves in context with his fellow captains of industry, it’s not so surprising.
Fellow travler Elon Musk, for example, made a massive play to secure his own media empire by purchasing X-formerly-Twitter, a platform he can now bend as he likes to shape the political landscape, with no need to fake impartiality. Mark Zuckerberg likewise helms a massive social media conglomerate in Meta, which he routinely uses to flout democracy for his own gain.
In reality, the great majority of news outlets in western society are owned by for-profit corporations and billionaires. Far from underserved, Bezos’ “free market pillar” is the dominant viewpoint in our media and our lives. At least they’re finally owning up to it.
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