Big Changes at The Washington Post

A top political columnist at The Washington Post recently stepped down. The reason? The columnist, Ruth Marcus, felt the paper's owner, Jeff Bezos, was trying to change the opinion section to only include views that match his libertarian beliefs. Marcus had been with the paper for four decades, and she was not happy about this change. She wrote a letter saying that Jeff's plan to only publish certain views, not all views, was a threat to the trust readers have in columnists. Marcus felt that the freedom of columnists to write what they believe in was being taken away. Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, also owns Amazon and Blue Origin. These companies have billions of dollars in business with the federal government. Bezos decided to stop endorsing presidential candidates because he thought it made the paper seem biased. This decision led to a lot of people canceling their subscriptions. Bezos also made some moves that made people think he was getting closer to President Trump. He even traveled to Mar-A-Lago to dine with the Trumps and sat on the inauguration platform with other tech leaders. The changes at The Washington Post have caused a lot of problems. Many people who worked there for a long time have left. Some of them are now working for other news outlets. The top news editor, Matt Murray, even stopped reporters from writing about what was happening at the paper. This led to more people leaving, including Associate Editor David Maraniss and former Senior Managing Editor Cameron Barr. Marcus also mentioned that she had worked at the Post in many different roles before becoming a columnist and associate editor. Marcus said she loved the Post and it was hard for her to leave. She said she had a lot of affection and admiration for her colleagues and would miss them every day. She also wished the paper the best as it goes through these tough times. The Post said they were grateful for Marcus' work and respected her decision to leave. They did not say anything about the things she said about the publisher. Bezos' decisions about the opinion pages led veteran journalists who have been a part of the Post for decades to cut ties.