Posted on 02/27/2025 7:39:46 AM PST by MtnClimber
Amazon founder and owner of the Washington Post Jeff Bezos announced Wednesday that change is coming to the paper’s opinion pages. Going forward, they will be supporting and defending the “two pillars” that are “right for America,” “personal liberties and free markets.” It was helpful for those who oppose the change to identify themselves as enemies of personal liberties and free markets.
Bezos also said that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
“A big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity. … 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.”
“Congratulations on becoming Reason Magazine!” Liz Wolfe, a Reason staffer tweeted in response.
Other reactions were not so kind. In fact, to a casual observer, it might seem as if Bezos had committed a felony by assaulting someone or had shot and killed Karl Marx, whose hostility to personal liberties and free markets has produced quite a few spiritual grandchildren and great-grandchildren who hold prominent places in American society.
There were of course the crude reactions from the crude people who believe the country is theirs to run.
Keith Olbermann, who used to be someone some time ago, before he came off of his hinges, said “the self-defenestrating” Washington Post is “somehow climbing back up the stairwell and throwing itself out another window while Bezos fires the opinion section and declares the paper utterly fascist.”
Get that? Personal liberties and free markets are “utterly fascist.” It takes a truly twisted person to reach that conclusion.
David Dayen of the American Prospect said in an email that he finds Bezos’ decision to defend personal liberty and free markets “deeply troubling.” Then he goes on to appeal for money from those who apparently also yearn to be shackled.
Washington Post staff freaked out as well.
Economics reporter Jeff Stein called Bezos’ announcement a “massive encroachment” on the opinion section.
Columnist Philip Bump, who must be worried that he won’t have a platform to endlessly call Trump a fascist, posted on Bluesky, the left bubble version of X “What the actual f***.”
So articulate.
Leah Greenberg, head of one of the endless leftwing groups that sprout in Washington, called it “A disgusting, gutless decision from Bezos that will go down in the history books as a textbook example of anticipatory obedience.”
We could go on. But you get the idea. The thoughtless invective and sputtering expletives, devoid of logic, are typical of today’s big news media, which are hardly thriving as agile competitors spring up.
The Post, once the respected newspaper of both Washington’s sprawling bureaucracy and its semi-permanent elected class, has been eclipsed in recent years by nimble online competitors as its staff became increasingly far left and out of touch.
The fact is, the Post can’t grow as now constituted. Bezos knows this. His out-of-touch journalists, used to having a blank check as they destroyed a once-great newspaper, don’t know this.
Like so many other billionaires, Bezos also knows something about the economy that the lefty journalists on his payroll don’t. And that is, whether his scribes like it or not, “personal liberties and free markets” are basically the American success story in a nutshell. And Bezos wants to tell it.
Was it a mistake to say that the Post op-ed page would only carry articles that support personal liberty and free markets? Possibly. Honest debates about issues on the Post’s editorial pages would be unique, and would showcase just how shallow and spiteful the left has become.
But then again, if the Post wants to once again expand and be a major player in American journalism (and not merely a trade journal for left-leaning U.S. government employees) it has to differentiate itself from the others.
Merely echoing the other failing voices among the mainstream media is no longer an option. And being a virtual adjunct to the Democratic Party is a losing cause.
Socialism, a system of government that has never succeeded anywhere, ever, is increasingly popular in the Donkey Party. In 2010, “just” 50% of Democrats said they had a “positive” view of socialism; in the most recent survey, taken in 2021, that number has surged to 65%.
Any surprise that a rational entrepreneur would want to walk back his news company’s full-throated support for that party and its devastating policies of the last four years?
So why not actually tell the truth? That the oppressive socialist economic policies and coercive “woke” restrictions on speech now so in vogue among Democrats are cultural and political dead ends? The rest of America wants its country back.
“This is about being crystal clear about what we stand for as a newspaper,” as Post CEO Will Lewis explained in a memo. “Doing this is a critical part of serving as a premier news publication across America and for all Americans.”
Yes, all Americans. And despite the childish rage of his far-left journalist employees, Bezos appears to be doing just that. Good luck, Jeff.
Leftist heads are exploding.
Personal liberties and free markets are “utterly fascist.”
It takes a truly twisted person to reach that conclusion.
Twisted, indeed.
What does he mean?
Bezos is often the target of the Left, saying he’s “too rich” and should give his wealth away to the poor. Really? During the rise of Amazon, Bezos became a millionaire in fairly quick order. But rather than sail around the world eating bon-bons, he plowed the money back into the company so it could grow. To those idiots who think he’s “too rich”, until you feed, clothe, and shelter over 250,000+ souls and their families, I suggest you sit down and STFU.
Bezos is leading an army filled with quisling soldiers waiting to frag him.
Hopefully he figures it out...
since i have no idea what’s actually on WaPo’s opinion pages, i’ve wondered if their stable of insane hard-leftist “columnists” are covered by this sea change, or does the Bezos edict JUST cover the “official” editorial itself? ...
if the edict also covers the gaggle of TDS columnists, then there’s a whole bunch of folks that’ll either have to bitterly flounce out the door while quitting or convert to writing about kittens and bunnies and such instead ...
He owns the paper and get to dictate the editorial opinion...like all owners before him..ie Hearst, etc....
Whether one agrees with Bezos or not, it is well within his right to dictate the direction of his own newspaper.
Where does someone think that the owner does not have such power or obligation? Where’s that new guy on X, Retard Finder?
“Twisted, indeed.”
well, the remark IS directed at documented lunatic Keith Olbermann ...
Yes. And, we all know what a sick, twisted freak he is.
Bezos said he wants to take the newspaper in a nude erection. To each his own, I guess.
now i suppose that a passel of morons will start yammering about “boycotting” amazon.com; I sorta doubt amazon.com would even notice ...
Personal liberties and free markets are “utterly fascist.”
They are racist, too! </s>
Not exactly a Bezos fan.
But to run a successful business requires a degree of common sense.
To acquire millions of dollars of net worth as a professional politician requires the denial of common sense.
The uniparty of the last fifty years has put me in this strange position of siding with billions as the patriots who will fully restore what remains of this shell of a republic.
Trump stepped forth first and then Musk and now Bezos?
I don’t fully trust Bezos but he seems to recognizes the media is a business and it makes no sense to limit your consumers to a narrow Marxist POV.
In Trump I trust, fully.
The other two are on probation.
What does he mean?
LOL....I’m shocked Keith left that out!
On probation.
That’s a good way to look at it.
This guy is up to something. I don’t trust him.
He’s trying to get back to Bill Clinton’s Democratic Party, not Milton Friedman or Murray Rothbard or Ayn Rand.
Wall, writing! W.I.N.N.I.N.G.! For as long as we can hold on.
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