Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announces he will limit the newspaper's columns to certain opinions

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos announced that the newspaper's opinion pages would focus on defending "personal freedoms" and the "free market" economy. "We will write every day in support and defense of [these] two pillars," and therefore against economic regulation, the Amazon founder wrote in a note to the newspaper's staff on Wednesday, February 26. "We will cover other topics of course, but the points of view opposing these pillars will be published by others" than the Washington Post , he added.

According to him, the points of view he defends "are underserved in today's marketplace of ideas and current opinions." He says, in his note shared on his X account , that he looks forward to "filling this void together" with the newspaper's teams. The decision prompted the departure of the head of the "WaPo" opinion pages, David Shipley, with Jeff Bezos announcing that the newspaper was starting a search for a new head.

Jeff Bezos' decision, highly unusual for a daily newspaper of the reputation of the Washington Post , is part of a movement of greater intervention on his part in the decisions of the newspaper of reference of the American capital, which he bought in 2013.

Before the presidential election in November, Jeff Bezos had notably prevented the Washington Post from calling for a vote for Kamala Harris, while voting recommendations by editorial boards are a tradition in the United States. The businessman, who during Donald Trump's first term had opposed him on defense contracts, has made a marked rapprochement with the Republican in recent months, and was notably present among the front rows at his inauguration on January 20. Elon Musk, an ally of the Republican president, welcomed the decision of the boss of the Washington Post . "Bravo Jeff Bezos!" , wrote the multi-billionaire on his X platform.

For his part, left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders denounced "oligarchic ownership of the media" and the fact that "the second richest guy in the world" had decreed that the Washington Post 's editorial pages would move "to the Trump right." After the memo, the newspaper's economics editor, Jeff Stein, denounced "a massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into the opinion section" of the paper.