Media

Why Jeff Bezos Has Plunged My Beloved Washington Post Into Darkness

HOLD THE PRESSES

As the hometown paper in the nation’s capital, the Post’s mission has long been to hold government accountable. Its staffers need to know that’s still the case.

opinion
A photo illustration of Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post logo.
Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty

When billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post in 2013, the storied paper was “upside down.” It was bleeding money. The Internet had stolen all the advantages of print media; if the Post was any other business, Bezos would have probably walked away.

Instead, he listened to then-publisher Donald Graham’s pitch on the importance of saving a flagship of press freedom. And he bought in—indeed, with his bulging pockets, Bezos was hailed as a savior. But that was then, and this is now.

Full disclosure, I worked for Newsweek when it was owned by the Post. I love the Post. I retrieve it every morning outside my door (even though I mostly read it online these days). I will continue to support the paper, and I urge it to stay true to its slogan, “Democracy dies in darkness.”

But this is a dark time. The Post’s newsroom is today in uproar after a series of decisions reflecting a new Trump-centric attitude imposed by Bezos. News broke Wednesday that more than 400 reporters and editors have signed a petition to their owner, laying out their complaints about the newspaper’s editorial leadership. (This took courage. Jobs are hard to come by in the media industry.)

“Generally, the mood has never been this bleak,” one veteran Post staffer told me.

From another Post stalwart: “Honestly, my sense is we are all in the dark. I wish I knew more. Or maybe I don’t wish that.”

Will Lewis, the Post’s CEO and publisher, is not mentioned by name in the letter, but is clearly the prime target for the petitioners, who include longtime editorial staffers. Last week, security was called to remove dozens of sheets of paper taped to the outside of Lewis’ office. Their message? “We’re doing our jobs – Why isn’t Will doing his?”

Unhappy staffers say Lewis hasn’t held a town hall meeting in over 200 days, a stark contrast to his predecessor, Patty Stonesifer. Stonesifer leveled with the newsroom when more than 200 jobs were on the chopping block in 2023. She is credited with offering buyouts, which have financial incentives, as opposed to layoffs, which are happening now and carry no such sweeteners. (She was also part of the team that chose Lewis.)

In an attempt calm the roiling waters, the Post’s executive editor Matt Murray sent an all-staff memo on Monday morning, urging patience—and temperance—during a period he framed as seeing so many aspects of daily newspaper journalism being re-thought: “We are clearly in a period of significant change, and it is certain to be uncomfortable at times. It can be especially hard to see valued colleagues leave,” Murray wrote.

“Yet as our industry and our company face many pressures, reinvention is also necessary and even welcome,” his note continued. “Multiple challenges have been building for some years, from the business circumstances we face, to shifting habits of audiences, to the way technology has upended the format and delivery of news. We are hardly the only news organization grappling with these challenges. Yet The Post has evolved throughout its history to meet the moment and is doing so again.”

A key point for all media outlets: If you depend on a billionaire for funding, it’s not a free ride.

“Can you imagine Katherine Graham giving Nixon a million dollars, or LBJ?” the Post’s long-time columnist Jennifer Rubin declared on her way out the door, after announcing her exit on Monday. Bezos, meanwhile, dropped seven figures Donald Trump’s way ahead of the inauguration—and has pledged $40 million for an Amazon-produced documentary called “Melania,” which promises an apparently “unprecedented” behind the scenes look at the First Lady. (This behavior is a stark contrast to 2017, when Bezos stood firm against Trump’s entreaties during a dinner at the White House, as chronicled by Marty Baron in his book, “Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, and The Washington Post.”)

Post reporters have done a first-rate job covering Trump in and out of office, and going forward, if they stick with their journalistic mission, they know it could be compromised by anything that could damage Bezos’ financial interests in the eyes of the president-elect’s administration.

Yes, when Katherine Graham owned the Post, there were times when she intervened on behalf of a friend. There was some trimming, maybe leaving out a name, or including a modifier. But stories weren’t outright killed—Just the opposite, when it came to printing truth to power, she was all in. “Katie Graham is gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that’s published,” Attorney General John Mitchell warned Carl Bernstein in 1972 of the paper’s most-renowned scoop. The Pentagon Papers were published—as was Mitchell’s quote, with a slight edit for vulgarity—and Graham later proudly sported a specially-made necklace with two charms on it: A tit and a wringer.

If Bezos today was commissioning his own custom jewelry, he’d likely be hoping some MAGA hat cufflinks prove, well, charming. He seems to have thought Trump was a one-off, and like the rest of us, he was wrong. So this time he’s taking the road that he thinks will spare him and his business ventures from Trump’s ire.

Sadly, this decision has ramifications far beyond the Post newsroom.