Washington Post Legend Slams Bezos Over Leadership Drama

Simmering tensions at The Washington Post surrounding its new leadership appear to be boiling over, with one of the newspaper’s most esteemed figures now publicly criticizing its owner, Jeff Bezos.

David Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and associate editor at the Post, wrote on Facebook Wednesday that he doesn’t know “a single person” at the publication who thinks the ongoing drama surrounding new CEO and publisher Will Lewis “can stand.” “There might be a few,” Maraniss added, “[B]ut very very few.”

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“Jeff Bezos owns the Post but he is not of and for the Post or he would understand,” Maraniss wrote. “The issue is one of integrity not resistance to change.”

The public criticism comes after the Amazon billionaire sent a memo to senior Post editors Tuesday assuring them that the “journalistic standards and ethics” of the paper were not going to change. Bezos nevertheless acknowledged that the newspaper needs “to change as a business.”

Since arriving at the Post in January, Lewis’ previous record has come under intense scrutiny—including from Post reporters. His early tenure at the paper has been overshadowed by a string of explosive reports alleging that he tried to bury stories about his involvement in a U.K. lawsuit related to a British phone-hacking lawsuit brought by Prince Harry and others. The long-running civil case has heard allegations (which Lewis denies) that Lewis helped to clean up the hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids.

The sudden resignation of Sally Buzbee, the executive editor of the Post, following Lewis’ alleged meddling in the newspaper’s coverage of the case—which Lewis also denies—led to more scrutiny of his leadership. As has the impending arrival of Robert Winnett, the man who Lewis has chosen to become the new editor of the Post after the presidential election.

The Post itself reported over the weekend on Winnett’s alleged ties to a self-described “thief” who claims to have used illegal practices to obtain secret information. Lewis declined to comment on his own reporters’ questions for their investigation into the matter.

“The staff is rightly and fearlessly investigating and questioning the acts of its publisher and supposed next editor whose refusal to answer all questions is inexcusable and unacceptable,” Maraniss wrote in another Facebook post Tuesday. “The body is rejecting the transfusion.”

A Washington Post spokesperson declined to comment on Maraniss’ posts.