Former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron condemned Jeff Bezos’ revamp of the paper’s opinions section in a statement to the Daily Beast on Wednesday, saying he was “sad and disgusted” by the billionaire’s demands.
Bezos said on Wednesday he would mandate the paper’s opinions section to focus on supporting free markets and personal liberties, saying those pieces with opposing views can “be left to be published by others.”
The move was rebuked by current and former Post staffers on social media, though it was praised in a trolling post by President Donald Trump’s White House.
Baron—played by Liev Schriber in Oscar-winning movie Spotlight—served as the paper’s executive editor from early 2013, months before Bezos purchased the Post, through to early 2021. He documented his relationship with the Amazon founder in his book Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post.
In his statement, Baron wondered how Bezos’ support for personal liberties squared with his mandate for limited views on the opinion pages.
“It was only weeks ago that The Post described itself as providing coverage for ‘all of America,’” Baron wrote in his statement. “Now its opinion pages will be open to only some of America, those who think exactly as he does.”
The Post did not respond to an request for comment.
Baron also accused Bezos of acquiescing to Trump and the president’s attacks on the press for his own business interests. Bezos ended the Post‘s decades-long tradition of presidential endorsements—and scrapped a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris—last fall, and he appeared alongside other tech leaders at Trump’s inauguration last month. He also donated $1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.
“There is no doubt in my mind that he is doing this out of fear of the consequences for his other business interests, Amazon (the source of his wealth) and Blue Origin (which represents his lifelong passion for space exploration),” Baron wrote Wednesday. “He has prioritized those commercial interests over The Post, and he is betraying The Post’s longstanding principles to do so.”
Baron had also chastised Bezos’ presidential endorsement decision last fall, calling the move “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.”
“Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage‚” he wrote at the time, years after unveiling how Bezos landed on the paper’s slogan “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
He took his concerns a step further on Wednesday, saying Bezos’ closer proximity to Trump at the inauguration and through Amazon’s production deal on a Melania Trump documentary did not appear to fulfill his public goal of increasing the Post’s independence. “It was a sign of dependence, not independence—the dependence of Amazon, Blue Origin and Bezos on Donald Trump," he wrote.
“What Bezos is doing today runs counter to what he said, and actually practiced, during my tenure at The Post,” Baron added. “I have always been grateful for how he stood up for The Post and an independent press against Trump’s constant threats to his business interests. Now I couldn’t be more sad and disgusted.”
