I have cancelled my subscription to The Washington Post today.

The reason why? Jeff Bezos has declared war on democracy, free speech, and independent journalism.

Today’s actions by Jeff Bezos have destroyed The Washington Post as a credible news organization. I can no longer subscribe to what is now an oligarch’s personal ideological rag.

The Washington Post reports: “Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos said Wednesday that the newspaper’s opinions section would now be focused on ‘personal liberties and free markets’ and won’t publish anything that opposes those ideas. With the shift, opinions editor David Shipley has resigned, and The Post is searching for a successor.”

Bezos has dismantled the independence of the opinion office, making the opinion section and the entire news organization untrustworthy.

According to The Washington Post: “‘We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,’ the billionaire Amazon founder wrote in an email to Post staffers that he also published on X. ‘We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.'”

“In his memo, Bezos wrote that he offered Shipley a chance to continue in ‘this new chapter’ but that Shipley instead ‘decided to step away.'”

“Bezos said that The Post no longer needs to offer a ‘broad-based opinion section’ because of a diversity of opinions available online.”

This is an absurd statement meant to mask Jeff Bezos’s clear desire to control The Washington Post’s entire opinion section’s commentaries on politics and current events. It is a corporate takeover of opinion section to advance the opinions of a single oligarch, Jeff Bezos.

This represents a clear assault on independent journalism and democratic values. Opinion sections at real news organizations provide anyone with the ability to submit opinion columns and essays for evaluation for potential publication. Bezo’s actions violate democratic principles, destroy free speech, and threaten civil rights in the United States.

Many friends and colleagues have already cancelled their subscriptions immediately following Jeff Bezos’s acquisition of The Washington Post in 2013. Others cancelled in 2023, following Bezos’s changes in the news organization.

I had maintained my subscription until now, hoping to be able to support the vital reporting of Washington Post reporters and their investigative reporting on federal government issues.

As a Professor of History at Northern Illinois University, I rely on quality news reporting to relate historical events and patterns to the contemporary world. I sometimes use quality news articles and expert opinion pieces as sources on contemporary history and public history issues that relate to the themes of my classes.

I have often used news articles and opinion pieces from The Washington Post and other major news organizations as readings with my undergraduate and graduate students, especially when examining the echoes of previous historical periods in the contemporary world. My professional website and blog has a section on History in the Media that features many of these news publications.

I had hoped that the wall between the news office, opinion office, and the business office at the news organization could be maintained under Bezos’s ownership.

However, this is clearly not possible in the new age of Trumpian domination in Washington, D.C.

Farewell to The Washington Post. It has died a shameful death.

I will watch All the President’s Men (1976) as a funeral tribute.

On Bezos’s dismantling of The Washington Post, see:

“Post owner Bezos announces shift in opinions section; Shipley to leave.” The Washington Post (26 February 2025).

Mullin, Benjamin. “Bezos Orders Washington Post Opinion Section to Embrace ‘Personal Liberties and Free Markets.'” The New York Times (26 February 2025).

Mullin, Benjamin and Katie Robertson. “A Decade Ago, Jeff Bezos Bought a Newspaper. Now He’s Paying Attention to It Again.” The New York Times (2023).