ShareMarty Baron, a highly regarded former editor of the Washington Post, has said that Jeff Bezos’s announcement
that the newspaper’s opinion section would narrow its editorial focus
was a “betrayal of the very idea of free expression” that had left him
“appalled”.
In an interview with the Guardian,
Baron also said: “I don’t think that [Bezos] wants an editorial page
that’s regularly going after Donald Trump.”
On Wednesday, the billionaire newspaper owner and Amazon founder sent an email to Post staffers
announcing that the newspaper’s editorial section would shift its
editorial focus and that only opinions that support and defend “personal
liberties” and “free markets” would be welcome, and other viewpoints
“will be left to be published by others”.
Bezos’s announcement was met with criticism and resulted in
the departure of the newspaper’s opinions editor, David Shipley. Baron,
who was executive editor of the Washington Post from 2012 until 2021
and is one of the most esteemed figures in American journalism, blasted
Bezos’s decision.
“There’s been a long
tradition at the Post of having a variety of opinions on the opinion
pages and that’s part of its heritage,” Baron said. “Bezos supported
that since he acquired the paper, he advocated for that internally, but
his most recent decision represents a real betrayal of the heritage of
the Post and a betrayal of the very idea of free expression.”
Baron
said that news organizations including the Post have traditionally
honored the principle of free expression by allowing a wide variety of
views on the opinion pages, but that Bezos’s decision on Wednesday “does
exactly the opposite” and “dishonors free expression, which is the most
fundamental personal liberty of American citizens”.
During his own time as executive editor, Baron noted that Bezos, who purchased the Washington Post
in 2013, was “minimally involved in the editorial page”, communicating
with the editorial page editor maybe “once every couple of weeks”.
Marty Baron interviews Jeff Bezos in Washington DC on 18 May 2016. Photograph: Linda Davidson/The Washington Post via Getty Images
At
the time, Baron said, Bezos believed in having a “wide variety of
opinions on the op-ed page” and in having the opinion pages “reflect the
kind of debate that we see in the country every day”, which Baron said
was something that most readers valued.
“But
now he’s retreated from that, and not just retreated, he has said quite
clearly that alternative opinions won’t even be allowed there,” Baron
said.
The former executive editor noted that if
Bezos wants “more conservative or libertarian views representing the
Post’s opinion section, that’s fine, but making room for one set of
opinions does not require banning a different set of opinions”.
Bezos’s
decision, Baron argued, contradicted the Post’s mission statement –
“Democracy Dies in Darkness” – by stifling public debate.
“If
you’re trying to advance the cause of democracy, then you allow for
public debate, which is what democracy is all about,” Baron said, adding
that Bezos is sending a message that is “anything but democratic”.
“He’s
saying that other opinions should never see the light of day, wherever
and whenever he’s in control of the space,” Baron said. “To me, that
message is one of disdain and disregard, and I would say disrespect for
other people’s views.”
Baron believes that Bezos is “fearful of reprisals” from Trump and his administration. This fear, Baron said, is what he believes led to the announcement last year that the newspaper’s editorial board would not endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in 30 years.
At the time, Baron condemned the move, calling it “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty” and suggested Trump would see it as “an invitation to further intimidate” Bezos.
On
Thursday, Baron remarked that “all the signs were that Trump would take
vengeance on his perceived political enemies” and noted that Bezos had
always been perceived as one largely due to the Washington Post’s
coverage. As a result, Baron said, the Amazon founder was “seeking to
repair his relations with the administration”.
Baron also highlighted other efforts made by Bezos or his companies to improve relations with Trump, including Amazon’s $1m donation to Trump’s inaugural fund, a recent $40m deal for Amazon Prime to license a documentary about Melania Trump, and Bezos’s visit to Mar-a-Lago and his attendance at the inauguration.
“All of those were signs of efforts to repair his relationship with Donald Trump,” Baron said.
Additionally,
Baron believes that Bezos wants the Washington Post to differentiate
from the New York Times and to have an opinion page more akin to the
Wall Street Journal, which adopts more conservative stances, but aimed
at a broader audience.
In terms of what the
future holds, Baron said that Bezos has “indicated that he’s going to be
very involved” in the paper’s opinion coverage.
“I
don’t know how they’re going to make it an interesting opinion page
when all the opinions are the same, but I would predict that readership
of the opinion page is likely to drop off dramatically,” Baron said.
“Nobody’s going to say anything different, so it’s going to be
exceptionally dull.”
Right now, Baron said, he
hand’t seen any evidence of Bezos interfering with the newspaper’s news
coverage, “and I hope he never does”.
Baron went on to praise the Post’s news coverage.
“There’s
been an enormous amount of damage inflicted on the Post from the top,
but there’s a lot of good being done by people who work at the Post, and
the newsroom has delivered what I consider to be truly admirable and
revelatory coverage of the Trump administration,” Baron said. “I am so impressed by the work that they’re doing.”
Baron
expressed that he would like to see Bezos publicly thank the
newspaper’s reporters and editors “for the incredible work that they’re
doing” especially given the current difficult political climate and the
administration’s attacks on the press.
If Bezos
“values his personal liberties, as he says he does, then I would like
to hear him speak up about this president’s abuse of power and about
this president’s attacks on the press”, Baron said.
“He
used to do that when I was there,” Baron said. “He did it eloquently,
it was totally admirable, and it really showed a lot of courage when he
did.
“But now he barely has a word to say about it. All that courage seems to have evaporated,” he added.
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