Spoiler: This Doesn’t End Well for the ‘Washington Post’

It's Déjà Vu for This Former ‘News-Press’ Reporter as Bezos Dictates His Paper’s Content

'Santa Barbara News-Press' employees protest the owner's interference with the news department by placing duct tape over their mouths at a rally in De la Guerra Plaza (July 14, 2006) | Credit: Paul Wellman (file)

*OPINION*

Democracy Dies in Darkness. That’s the Washington Post’s lofty motto, and it’s always given me goosebumps, in the best way.

But news from the Post sent unwelcome chills down my neck this week — along with a sickening déjà vu.

Billionaire owner Jeff Bezos announced that the news outlet will no longer publish any viewpoints on its opinion page that don’t support and defend “personal liberties and free markets.”

Even while being deliberately vague, that phrasing reeks of Trumpiness and suggests a resistance to regulation; did I mention Bezos is the founder and largest individual shareholder of Amazon? In fact, after pulling its endorsement of Kamala Harris weeks before the election, and refusing to publish an editorial cartoon showing Bezos and others groveling before Trump, this latest undue editorial influence strongly suggests that the Post is toast.

Believe me. I’ve been there.

At first, when a billionaire buys your newspaper, it seems like exactly the salvation you need: Yippee! We’re saved! No more reporters having to buy our own pens! And coffee!

Almost immediately, though, things get weird — as we learned at the Santa Barbara News-Press, where I was a reporter and columnist for over a decade. Quirky at first: The new owner redesigns the masthead — that logo that sits atop the front page of your Pulitzer-winning newspaper. And she does it … with her own set of colored pencils? Huh. Whatever, give her permanent markers for all you care. Just keep her out of the newsroom.

Quirky quickly flips to worrisome as she publishes an editorial recommending we all stop donating Thanksgiving turkeys to folks in poverty. Let them eat rice and beans!, she trumpets. Oof, okay, that triggers my guillotine finger. But listen — as long as she respects the critical wall between news and editorial, we’ll eat whatever the broad says.

I hope I’m not spoiling the ending by telling you that the wall came down faster than the door between an ICE agent and a brown U.S. citizen. Imperious and overwealthed after one of the most expensive divorce settlements in U.S. history, our paper’s owner quickly developed a taste for deciding what readers got to know about, and what they didn’t. And she snatched at that megaphone more and more frequently, flicking away each journalist ethic that threatened to piss on her power party.

Handsome Hollywood actor calls to complain about coverage? Censure the reporter for doing her job! (Farewell, Independence.)

Handpicked lackey opinion-page editor arrested for drunk driving? Kill the story! (So long, Transparency.)

Beloved editor blathering that news without integrity isn’t worth the fishwrap it’s printed on? Fire the infidel! (Adios, Accountability.)

Yada yada yada, protests, resignations, lawsuits, bankruptcy. It ended well for no one.

For a long time, Bezos seemed to be doing right by the venerated, storied Post and its engaged, informed readers. But at the end of the day, he’s not going to let the credibility of his media-outlet-worth-millions threaten the longevity of his multinational-retailer-worth-actual-trillions-I-wish-I-were-joking.

Billionaires are not used to being told “no.” But I finally said no to the Washington Post today, just as I said no to our tyrant owner 19 years ago. It broke my heart to cancel my subscription, just as it squashed my soul to walk away from the best job I ever had.

I hope all the hardworking, principled journalists at the Post find work at the independent, transparent, accountable news outlets rising up as our traditional outlets bow to political and financial influence. Check out ProPublica. Axios. The Conversation. And of course, local news outlets like the Independent (which lets its columnist recommend other news outlets: that’s Independence right there!)

Principled news media know that the truth isn’t always what we want to hear, but it’s essential to our survival. And this is the truth:

Democracy dies with despots.