The Washington Post is under fire for allegedly failing to disclose when the editorial line taken by its opinion team has overlapped with the sizable interests of its billionaire owner, tech tycoon Jeff Bezos.
“On at least three occasions in the past two weeks, an official Post editorial has taken on matters in which Bezos has a financial or corporate interest without noting his stake,” NPR writes. “In each case, The Post’s official editorial line landed in sync with its owner’s financial interests.”
In the latest case, NPR pointed to an editorial about President Donald Trump’s scandalous demolition of the White House’s East Wing to make space for a glitzy new ballroom.
Amazon, owned by Bezos, was a significant contributor to funding for those efforts, which the Post failed to mention in its original version of its article. Amid the ensuing backlash, the text has since been updated to reflect that fact.
The Post’s editorial board called Trump’s White House ballroom a win against campaigners not liking change, and a shot across the bow of NIMBY protesters everywhere.
Other instances reportedly include the paper describing the Trump administration’s plans for smaller nuclear reactors as “a worthy gamble,” without noting Bezos’ holdings in the sector, as well as blasting safety regulations on self-driving cars in Washington, D.C. without making clear Bezos’ autonomous car manufacturer, Zoox, was soon planning to expand operations in the city.
“It strikes me that the failure to do this [disclosure] is concerning, whether out of negligence or worse,” former WaPo deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus told NPR. “I think telling your readers that there might be a conflict in whatever they’re reading is always important. It’s a lot more important when it involves whoever the owner is.”
WaPo’s editorial board has been bleeding staff since Trump’s inauguration in January, with at least six top members of the opinion section leaving amid mounting concerns of a rightward editorial shift under the second MAGA administration.
In February, Bezos had instructed the publication’s opinion writers to focus exclusively on issues related to “personal liberties and free markets,” telling them “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
That move triggered the resignation of long-time opinion editor David Shipley, and sparked concern over editorial independence that has only continued to mount in the months since.
Cartoonist Ann Telnaes was next to go, resigning after WaPo spiked one of her sketches that had been critical of Bezos and other tech broligarchs’ perceived obeisance to Trump. One of the highest-profile departures to date was Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Capehart, who took a buy-out in July after nearly 20 years with The Post.
These losses have coincided with a reported slumping subscriber base and a collapse in internal morale.
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