Washington Post associate editor and political columnist Ruth Marcus resigned on Monday, alleging that publisher William Lewis had deep-sixed her column criticizing recent editorial decisions by owner Jeff Bezos.
The Amazon founder proclaimed last month that the paper’s editorial pages would pivot to focusing on content “in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets” and leave other opinions up to “social media.”
“Will’s decision not to run the column that I wrote respectfully dissenting from Jeff’s edict — something that I have not experienced in almost two decades of column-writing — underscores that the traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded,” Marcus wrote in her resignation letter, obtained by The New York Times.
Bezos’s edict last month sent opinion editor David Shipley out the door. Editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned in January after the paper killed a cartoon criticizing “the billionaire tech and media chief executives who have been doing their best to curry favor with incoming President-elect Trump,” as she explained.
Telnaes’ resignation came before Bezos and several fellow billionaires, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla founder Elon Musk, joined Donald Trump on the inauguration dais. Bezos’s companies, Amazon and Blue Origin, have billions of dollars in contracts with the federal government.
Several opinion board members had already resigned from The Washington Post in October after Bezos killed the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris for president. In an opinion piece, he claimed that presidential endorsements “create a perception of bias,” a position that did not sit well with 300,000 now former digital subscribers.
“I love the Post,” concluded Marcus, who has worked at the paper since 1984. “It breaks my heart to conclude that I must leave.”
Her former employer said Monday: “We’re grateful for Ruth’s significant contributions to The Washington Post over the past 40 years. We respect her decision to leave and wish her the best.”
With News Wire Services
