SCOOP: WaPo Opinion editor David Shipley is out. Jeff Bezos emails staff about a change to Post Opinions: "We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets."
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Watching Fascism grow and strengthen by the day in the most powerful country in the history of the world is a frightening and somewhat helpless feeling.
Don't they understand how utterly ludicrous they sound.
Not to mention hypocritical.
Singing the praises of "Freedom" whilst curtailing debate and freedom of the press.
They're much more interested in controlling the narrative and manipulating the political landscape than in our freedom.
The way to punish Bezos is to cancel your Amazon Prime Membership. Amazon makes $30 BILLION/year from Prime Membership fees and an estimated 95% ($28.5 billion) drops straight to the bottom line. These Membership fees represent a whopping 48% of 2024 net profit.
Here is Jeff Bezo's super yacht "support vessel". It contains all the toys like jet skis, helicopters, zodiac tenders, extra booze and motors with the super yacht wherever it goes.
The annual cost to maintain the super yacht and its support vessel is: ~$30 million
The new order loves hypocrisy. They don't care about ethics or morals unless it is their own, and fit whatever deranged "untouchable billionaire mood" they're in.
They feel they're owed and can't be slighted.
They said the Titanic couldn't sink or the tower of Babylon couldn't fall either.
We switched over to using Costco for just about every home delivery. There are still some things we get from Amazon, and the streaming service is okay (although many movies you have to pay for now) but trying to determine if we cancel Prime altogether.
"Free markets" means no subsidies for fossil fuel extraction and earned and unearned income are taxed at the same rate, correct?
"Personal liberties" means a woman has total control over her healthcare decisions and no books are banned, correct?
Having worked for a mercurial billionaire media owner – Rupert Murdoch, and yes please I’m aware – I can tell you from experience that it’s the anticipatory compliance that is the most insidious.
I did, however, once get a call from Murdoch, ordering my coverage to be favorable on a Fox movie
David Shipley presided over the long slide downward into irrelevancy. It was under his watch the decision was made to not make a presidential endorsement.
He’s not entirely above criticism, but I guess it got too putrid even for him…
How much US media is now right-wing & toeing the Trump line?
In the UK it's all been right-wing for many years apart from a couple of newspapers (Mirror & Guardian) & the BBC which attempts to convey both sides, but attracts much criticism in the process.
The media are destroying democracy, imho.
"I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,” Mr. Bezos said. “Our country did not get here by being typical."
Is Mr. Bezos totally blind that America is falling under fascistic rule at this very moment? I suppose not, since he's one of the few people who will benefit from that happening.
Bezos turned WAPO from a great paper to a soiled, used rag. What next, will he be writing editorials à la Musk in X? Wrong way to go, Jeff! With all your billions, are you threatened by....opinions? What's wrong with you, dude?
They have not done anything remotely this bad. It's not just the content they are promoting, it's that the owner is now dictating editorial policy after years of being a light touch.
NYT's missteps have been misdemeanors at worst.
Their excuse for spiking that Telnaes cartoon over which she left was that the editorial page had already covered the subject. I guess repetitively covering the same issues there is no longer a concern.
Will be interesting how they discuss "personal liberties" of transgender folks...
How about his other interests like wage slavery, monopolies, stripping worker protections, dismantling of OSHA…? Surely there’s a little bit of flexibility
Demonstrate that @washingtonpost.com has a financial relationship with the Trump Administration and you can sue them on 1st Amendment Grounds now and when Trump no longer has power.
State AGs can sue them now on fitness for purpose grounds.
You could do better than just quote his email in that headline. How about "Jeff Besos directly intervenes in paper's Opinion section".
And subtitle, "Opinion manager Shipley leaves in protest".
Or subtitle, "Democracy died in darkness".
#WashingtonPost #BezosCuck
it's all just people and they're all fundamentally the same, within about a standard deviation, on just about any metric you should desire to measure them on
@JeffBezos is full of shit!
Legacy Media is Dead
We changed the mast head as soon as Bezos bought WaPo & cancelled our subscriptions
I sure wish Katharine Graham was still here
How terribly far the fall is since their Watergate glory days
"That's what the internet is for" I mean, this is basically telling readers that there's no need to subscribe to his paper but, sure, let's go with that business strategy.
Support the newsroom by voting with your pocketbook, don't pretend (as Dem politicians love to do) that you can just sit it out and hope things change later). It's your money, if you want to support this it's your right. It's your choice - personal liberty and all that.
I am so glad I canceled my subscription to WaPo. Shameful - “Democracy Dies in Darkness” newspaper turns off its own lights.
Next up: not renewing Amazon Prime.
I went ahead and ended my Amazon Prime today - had a wonderful time telling them why in the post-cancellation survey. My biggest struggle will be in convincing my husband that he can survive without it. We have it through the middle of April and then it’s done.
Sounds like it’s time for malicious compliance. If Bezos were really for personal liberties and free markets, he’d be against everything Trump and Co. have done so far. So, by all means, write about ACTUAL personal liberties and free markets.
I’m not so sure. If private equity had bought it instead of Bezos, it would have been pushed into bankruptcy by now. Bezo owning it just makes me wish it was bankrupt and gone instead 😑
In a true free market system, capitalism isn’t all that evil tbh. If you have many options, you’ll go work for the company that isn’t exploiting you, you’ll buy items not arbitrarily marked up, and in today’s society, personal conduct would matter.
This sounds like an idealized utopian vision. Has it ever actually existed? Because I am unaware of any such system and it seems to go against how the incentives in capitalism work in reality.
Throughout history, it should be noted that different systems fit best for what they do economically and holding onto those systems have led to end stage failure.
We need to become a more facile society willing to change as needs depend on it.
Agreed. Amazon started out to give ordinary people an opportunity to save money. Now it’s just another huge monopoly that squeezes out any pretense of competition… I’ve watched it turn into this, so sad.
whore is not a derogatory term. whores actually do something that is beneficial to society, actually take risks, have way higher standards and look out for each other.
I think guys like Jeff view the entirety of the economy as "the market"; that is, he sort of has the right to buy anything he wants - including competitors. I don't think they believe in a regulatory framework that might inhibit their soulless, unending greed.
No regrets about canceling my WaPo subscription. Also tanked my Amazon account forever, and will never enter a Whole Foods store. I don't want to give money to fascists. Fuck Jeff Bezos, the fucking evil bastard.
I urge everyone not just to get rid of Prime, but to just stop shopping at Amazon (and Whole Foods) completely. Do whatever you can to financially hurt Jeff Bezos. Fuck him.
Whose personal liberties, Jeff? Just checking. Like trans people and people needing reproductive care? Or are you talking about *specific* personal liberties, in which case please clarify.
Damn. Just unabashed servility. I don’t believe for a second he gives f*ck about anyone’s personal liberty but his own, so he can remain free to exploit workers & tax loopholes while gorging himself on wealth others create for him. And it still won’t be enough. It will never, ever be enough.
Or, at least, the American version of "free markets": let rich people do whatever they want and, when they invariably fuck up, insisting that the government bail them out.
They also get upset when it’s pointed out that the influence of the rich and powerful is as much a hinderance on “free markets” as government regulation.
Canada, too, so we won't be much help if you're looking for outside sources. Our MSM keeps saying things like "false claim" when they should be using the real word "lie."
lol, because doing shit like paying $40 million to FLOTUS for a documentary that helps you get favorable government treatment—that’s free market activity. Bezos is such a fucking joke.
No, this is the oligarchic owner telling his reporters “You write pro-oligarchy pieces now”. Plain and simple.
Up to now, I have continued to subscribe out of loyalty to the actual journalists who have kept the memory of the Post alive. But enough: F*ck you, Bezos, for destroying a great American newspaper.
List is growing
John Deere
Harley Davidson
Jack Daniel’s
Ford Motor
Lowe’s
Molson Coors
Boeing
Walmart
McDonald’s
Meta
Amazon
Target
The Smithsonian Institution
Google
Amtrak
Accenture
Pepsi
GM
Disney
GE
Intel
PayPal
Chipotle
Comcast
PBS
Deloitte
Goldman Sachs
Coca Cola
Citigroup
JP Morgan Chase
The Smithsonian is almost 100% dependent on federal grants. To thumb their nose at Danger Yam's EO would invite destruction of the entire thing. As it is, I expect the African-American and Native American museums to shutter before EOY.
I guess that depends on how you define personal liberties. I don't happen to think trashing other people's beliefs because they are uncomfortable for a person to encounter is an infringement on their liberty, but on the liberty of the targeted person or group.
Poorly educated, white, working-class citizens are so gullible. They've been convinced to hand over cash to the Christian Church and convinced to hand over cash to Trump. They literally purchase their own brainwashing. Donald Trump is the Joel Olstein of government.
Libertarians don't talk about -or maybe don't even realize- is how you can have "Personal liberties/Free markets", along with a court system that allows the Wealthy and Big Business to completely quash small speech, like NDAs and lawsuits, protecting their products/interests
I know that dropping Meta and Amazon is hard and definitely inconvenient. But try and look at where this is heading. There will be nothing to control prices and wages once our country becomes a corporation and every bit of our money is squeezed out.
Personal liberties? PERSONAL LIBERTIES?
If that’s the case, then they need to publish an “opinion” about Tulsi Gabbard‘s move to eliminate all LGBTQ staff.
I've canceled several times, yet they won't. stop. delivering the Sunday paper. I don't want it, don't read it, don't pay for it. Assuming they are propping up subscriber numbers by continuing delivery. Anyone else have this issue?
I put it in my description, but if for some reason you have to have a subscription (work, etc.) if you cancel they offer you a half price yearly rate to sign back up. So worth doing so.
Free - completely unregulated - markets are exactly what's been taking liberties with our freedoms, our rights and our income ever since Thatcher and Regan consigned themselves to an eternity in Hell.
This sounds terrible for Musk, Trump, and Republicans. They support curtailing personal liberties, such as the freedom to not be pregnant, and support corrupt crony capitalism, in which you have to bribe Trump/Musk to do business ... the antithesis of free markets. https://bsky.app/profile/maxtani.bsky.social/post/3lj3md3vc222a
Which personal liberties? A woman’s bodily autonomy, the right to criticize government, or the right to call people “ retards”? The MAGA crowd is very selective on personal liberties
🤯 I unsubscribed when he wouldn’t let them endorse Harris, then resubscribed to support their excellent journalists, but have to unsubscribe completely now. What, besides currying favor with the self-proclaimed God-King, does he hope to accomplish with this?
Looking forward to reading pieces about the freedom to call Elon Musk a dick without receiving threatening letters from the corrupted MoJ or for people to object at town halls without getting hog- tied by brownshirts.
Since I assume Bezos knows that "Free Markets" don't like personal liberties, because liberties are expensive whereas slavery isn't, I assume he's being incredibly sarcastic here. Or he's a moron. Possibly both!
So the WaPo is going the way of the WSJ -- an opinion page that is pure propaganda. Somehow, the WSJ has managed to survive. Maybe the WaPo will, also.
Liberties for we not thee. The nazi, I mean Republican Party, is nothing but a fascist club. Any one who votes for them are fascism sympathizers. The only good fascists are decomposing fascists.
Bezos wants "free markets"? He wants every industry, including his own, to have so much competition that no one company can control the market? For there to be "perfect information" on every product sold, so consumers know when they're being cheated? Those are both vital to a "free market."
Yeah, he really doesn't actually want people discussing the ways that Amazon distorts the free market and the importance of antitrust legislation and regulation to keep it free for the consumers.
Let’s make sure the free market crashes his business as more people abandon Amazon every day. Stop enriching people destroying the fabric of our society.
This is perfect. So he's for boosting the free market by breaking up monopolies like Amazon and protecting personal liberties like trans rights and legal immigrants. Can't wait to see that in WaPo's pages!
Jeff Bezos is making @washingtonpost.com a "Pravda on the Potomac".
Truth: Bezos' move to make @postopinions.bsky.social a libertarian mouthpiece is accelerating the Post's transition into a right-wing, authoritarian supporting outlet like Putin's Pravda.
Personal liberties and free markets....hmmn the first leader for the new OpEd should be: how do we prevent economic power from concentrating in the hands of a few, thereby limiting freedom for the many? Look forward to reading it!
"Freedom is ethical." Bezos woke up this morning & declared himself a philosopher, as though many centuries of philosophical thought haven't taken up this discussion. Ayn Rand shallowness at best. Let's see, for example, how Adorno might think of it; here's a reading of Odysseus, that ancient 1/
"figure of the protagonist compelled to wander..." ..."the self isn't the fixed antithesis to adventure, but instead molds itself as a being that denies all unity... Odysseus loses himself in order to find himself." He isn't seeking out a form of unity, which implies his life is determined by 2/
something else, but instead seeks out adventure which can contest and conquer newer forms of otherness [parsing from Jeff Nealon's book Alterity Politics]. 3/3
Why doesn't the Washington Post write about the DEFENSE of personal liberties, and free markets? Does Bezos think Trump supports personal liberties, and free markets? Did he fall and hit his head?
Social structures that maximize personal liberty within free-market economic systems require rational actors that make beneficial choices as they pursue their self-interest.
There’s an opportunity here for some gloriously malicious compliance. Just go absolutely savage on Trump for his anti-free market use of tariffs and his attacks on the personal liberties of trans people and immigrants.
Has he any sense of Irony? He's firing an Opinion Editor, whose opinions don't align with his politics, whilst proclaiming future articles will support personal liberties and free markets.
I thought this was an early April Fools' joke, but it's real.
Jeff Bezos has a billionaire's view of what "free markets" and "personal liberties" mean, and it's not going to align with the interests of the average American.
I recall Roy Greenslade's 2013 Guardian story, 10 days after Bezos bought WaPo, "Is Jeff Bezos a libertarian? WaPo journalists would like to know". Quoting Allan Sloan: "A core belief of libertarianism is that ideas will prevail in a free marketplace."
Rest of Sloan's quote from the article: "And if you know about markets, you know the key to making them efficient + fair is for as many players to have as much information as possible."
But for Bezos, Trump, Musk, et al. it's *never* every about efficiency and fairness.
Greenslade ends the article with this from Sloan: "When he acquired the New York Post in 1976 from its liberal owner, Dorothy Schiff, '[Murdoch] assured the paper's staff that he'd retain the Post's essential character as a serious newspaper.' Sloan adds: 'And we all know how that turned out'."
I'd cancel all my Bezos products, but already canceled my WaPo sub more than a year ago, switched from Kindle to Kobo ebooks after the election, canceled Prime last month. Also buying as little as possible from Amazon, only when I can't find a product elsewhere here in rural western Canada.
We started with the 'only purchase from Amazon if it cannot be found anywhere else' years ago. Canceled WAPO last year.
Beware though, those distinctive boxes will still show up at your door because so many small retailers (must?) use the Amazon warehouses/shipping.
For us, being able to find it elsewhere usually means a 2-hour roundtrip to the nearest very small city/5-hour to nearest big city, which doesn't happen often bc we farm. So we just make do without -- of course easier to do with personal items that we'd like vs business items that we need.
Behind the scenes? I'm not sure how much more out in the open the corruption can get, unless the white house starts live streaming box openings of Russian bribe money.
Yes it’s so unethical to coerce business to pay their workers a minimum wage, have safe working conditions, and recognise and negotiate with unions. 🙄🙄🙄🤬🤬🤬
Comments
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/26/business/media/washington-post-bezos-shipley.html
Not to mention hypocritical.
Singing the praises of "Freedom" whilst curtailing debate and freedom of the press.
They're much more interested in controlling the narrative and manipulating the political landscape than in our freedom.
PUNISH Bezos = CANCEL Amazon Prime
The annual cost to maintain the super yacht and its support vessel is: ~$30 million
They feel they're owed and can't be slighted.
They said the Titanic couldn't sink or the tower of Babylon couldn't fall either.
Someone needs to set up a cooperative and ethical version.
Happy to pay 10-20% more and wait double the time for deliveries for an ethical alternative.
@nytpitchbot.bsky.social
"Personal liberties" means a woman has total control over her healthcare decisions and no books are banned, correct?
It is not enough, but it is something. Bezos is clearly not even trying.
I did, however, once get a call from Murdoch, ordering my coverage to be favorable on a Fox movie
He’s not entirely above criticism, but I guess it got too putrid even for him…
In the UK it's all been right-wing for many years apart from a couple of newspapers (Mirror & Guardian) & the BBC which attempts to convey both sides, but attracts much criticism in the process.
The media are destroying democracy, imho.
Is Mr. Bezos totally blind that America is falling under fascistic rule at this very moment? I suppose not, since he's one of the few people who will benefit from that happening.
amazon can kiss my ass.
Cool.
They'll be next.
Remember, they said Hitler was a nice guy.
:
https://www.nytimes.com/1933/01/31/archives/hitler-puts-aside-aim-to-be-dictator-german-cabinet-also-reveals.html
NYT's missteps have been misdemeanors at worst.
Will be interesting how they discuss "personal liberties" of transgender folks...
https://archive.ph/TkRDc
Obviously billionaires knows what is best for the common man.
#FuckJeffBezos
State AGs can sue them now on fitness for purpose grounds.
@chriscillizza.bsky.social @maddow.msnbc.com
And subtitle, "Opinion manager Shipley leaves in protest".
Or subtitle, "Democracy died in darkness".
#WashingtonPost #BezosCuck
it would be WILD if we weren't one of the major players on the world stage.
it has next to nothing to do with "American Exceptionalism"
it's all just people and they're all fundamentally the same, within about a standard deviation, on just about any metric you should desire to measure them on
👀
Legacy Media is Dead
We changed the mast head as soon as Bezos bought WaPo & cancelled our subscriptions
I sure wish Katharine Graham was still here
How terribly far the fall is since their Watergate glory days
Next up: not renewing Amazon Prime.
Not worth subscribing to.
MAGA propaganda
If he was so “free market” then he wouldn’t have tried his hardest to stamp out every bit of competition to monopolize industry.
That dickhead can be thrown to the woodchipper with the rest of them.
Sex workers are hardworking and provide a unique service and they deserve safety and respect.
Jeff Bezos is none of those things.
Jeff Bezos wants none of these things.
The failure is that people assume there’s some kind of perfect system that exists and can’t be gamed and works for everyone…it doesn’t exist though.
We need to become a more facile society willing to change as needs depend on it.
Right now, socialism would clearly be best.
They seek power and control over others.
Sex work is more than valid and sex workers deserve our respect as members of society.
I’m in the wrong and should’ve worded it differently.
You’re right to check me on it.
myself and my partner are both former SWers so it means a lot when ppl are open to changing attitudes and language and stuff.
#BLOCKWAPO
Merely bitching about them is not going to send a message.
And anyone who hasn't unsubscribed to everything Bezos is doing it wrong.
NYT = FASCIST COLLABORATOR TRASH AND NOT FAR BEHIND.
No one talks about water in the ocean I guess.
it becomes clearer every day why MacKenzie left him in the dust
https://chomsky.info/19960413/
:::volcanic eruption of anger:::
“Anyone can compete with me on this completely level playing field”
I recommend The Guardian.
No, this is the oligarchic owner telling his reporters “You write pro-oligarchy pieces now”. Plain and simple.
"Every day, we will support my making even more obscene amounts of money."
John Deere
Harley Davidson
Jack Daniel’s
Ford Motor
Lowe’s
Molson Coors
Boeing
Walmart
McDonald’s
Meta
Amazon
Target
The Smithsonian Institution
Google
Amtrak
Accenture
Pepsi
GM
Disney
GE
Intel
PayPal
Chipotle
Comcast
PBS
Deloitte
Goldman Sachs
Coca Cola
Citigroup
JP Morgan Chase
PBS?
New masthead:
“My darkness is your reality”
Libertarianism is a Lie
money last year.
(Heel clicks are ineffective as I'm wearing slippers.)
"two pillars: personal liberties and free markets"
Now do as I say!
And praise my predatory monopoly!
Unsubscribe from and stop reading or watching
@washingtonpost.com
@cnn.com
@nytimes.com
@theyoungturks.bsky.social
@msnbc.com
And so on… we can hurt them all by ignoring them. They chose money over journalism… they bent the knee… walk away
If that’s the case, then they need to publish an “opinion” about Tulsi Gabbard‘s move to eliminate all LGBTQ staff.
Just the kind of personal liberties that allow the wealthy to do whatever they want without consequences.
I think it means opinion will be sold to the highest bidder.
Amirite?
Jeff “the Enshittifier” Bezos
PADME: And constitutional integrity, right?
BEZOS: ...
PADME: And constitutional integrity, right?!
Fuck.
Bezos crossed the rubicon.
WaPo is cooked.
As storied an instituion as it was, it’s fucking over.
The quicker we grasp that, and move on to build something to replace it, the better.
Don’t hang on to dead dinosaurs.
The asteroid hit.
Do those free markets extend to businesses who want to have DEI policies?
Truth: Bezos' move to make @postopinions.bsky.social a libertarian mouthpiece is accelerating the Post's transition into a right-wing, authoritarian supporting outlet like Putin's Pravda.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/2/26/2306390/-Pravda-on-the-Potomac-Bezos-explicitly-sends-Washington-Post-opinions-into-far-right-dystopia
"Democracy died on the doorstep."
https://bsky.app/profile/dieworkwear.bsky.social/post/3lj2sxehk722c
Instead, we have this.
https://bsky.app/profile/dieworkwear.bsky.social/post/3lj2sxehk722c
Jeff Bezos has a billionaire's view of what "free markets" and "personal liberties" mean, and it's not going to align with the interests of the average American.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2013/aug/16/jeff-bezos-washington-post
But for Bezos, Trump, Musk, et al. it's *never* every about efficiency and fairness.
Beware though, those distinctive boxes will still show up at your door because so many small retailers (must?) use the Amazon warehouses/shipping.
Shows that there's a lot of corruption going on behind the scenes.
Yes it’s so unethical to coerce business to pay their workers a minimum wage, have safe working conditions, and recognise and negotiate with unions. 🙄🙄🙄🤬🤬🤬