Jeff Bezos bans Washington Post opinion writers from opposing ‘free speech and free markets’

In a move promoted as supporting freedom of speech, The Washington Post will no longer publish opinion columns that oppose the core views of Post owner and Amazon executive chair Jeff Bezos, Bezos has reportedly told staff. New York Times reporter Benjamin Mullin and Semafor reporter Max Tani published details about the move on Wednesday, noting that changes also include the departure of current opinion editor David Shipley. The memo from Bezos and another from Washington Post CEO Will Lewis were leaked during an Amazon event announcing new features for its Alexa assistant.

“We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” Bezos wrote in an email, according to a screenshot from Mullin. “A big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical; it drives creativity, invention and prosperity.” Opinion articles that oppose these two pillars, Bezos says, “will be left to be published by others.” He concludes that “I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America,” saying he is excited to fill a “void” of coverage supporting them.

Lewis’ email praises Bezos for his email’s “clarity and transparency,” saying a replacement for Shipley will be “announced in due course.”

Bezos acquired The Washington Post in 2013, but he began shaping it more visibly shortly before the 2024 presidential election, when he reportedly nixed a planned endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. (The Post issued a denial that did not actually deny the reports.) While this was commercially detrimental to the paper, it avoided a move that could have incensed victorious Republican candidate and current President Donald Trump, who holds significant power over the fate of Bezos’ e-commerce and aerospace endeavors, as well as its potential acquisition of TikTok. Lewis’ email tells employees that the new shift is “not about siding with any political party.”

Neither Lewis nor Bezos indicated there would be changes to the Post’s news coverage, which is distinct from its opinion section. Bezos also says the opinion section will continue to cover topics unrelated to his two pillars.

All news outlets, of course, have implicit or explicit boundaries for their opinion coverage — and free speech is a central value for many journalists. It’s not even uncommon for opinion writers to publish stories that significantly conflict with their news reporting. But newspaper owners have traditionally allowed their editorial staff to make those decisions, in part to clearly establish their independence. Bezos’ direct involvement raises questions about how independent the Post is from an owner with many other financial interests. In current cultural parlance, terms like “free speech” can also be defined in ways that include direct government regulation of speech.

Fortunately, America is facing numerous urgent and timely questions that fit Bezos’ new, personally issued directive. Are major tech companies like Amazon monopolies that distort fair market competition, and should the US government pursue sweeping antitrust cases that could break them up? Will the administration led by Trump, whose inauguration received a $1 million Amazon donation and was attended prominently by Bezos, continue attempts to censor media outlets by leveraging its regulatory power and access to information? The possibilities are nearly endless.