Article in Mediaite by Kathrun Wilkens, 3/3/25
Headline: “Exclusive: Marty Baron on Jeff Bezos, The Washington Post, and Trump’s Crackdown on the Press”
“A few months after legendary journalist Marty Baron was hired as the top editor of The Washington Post in 2013, billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the paper.
During his eight years leading The Post — a dramatic run that included Donald Trump’s first term in office and ten Pulitzer Prizes for the paper — Baron maintained a good relationship with Bezos and has praised the billionaire for standing up to Trump’s efforts to crack down on coverage in the years since his retirement in 2021.
In Trump’s second term, Baron fears Bezos has abandoned his resolve to maintain the independence and credibility of The Post.
The billionaire made waves last week by announcing a shift in the paper’s editorial policy. In a rare public statement, he declared that The Post’s opinion section would now advocate for “personal liberties and free markets,” and not print opposing viewpoints on those subjects.
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Article in The Atlantic by George Packer, 3/1/25
Headline: “The Washington Post Is Dying a Death of Despair”
“How does a free press in this country die? Probably not the way Americans imagine. It’s unlikely—though not impossible—that heavily armed police are going to raid newspaper offices, confiscate computers, and haul editors and reporters off to jail. Media websites probably won’t go dark under government bans. Pro-regime militias with official backing won’t light a bonfire of anti-regime books and magazines on Pennsylvania Avenue. The demise of independent journalism in the United States will be less spectacular than the notorious examples of other times and places—as much voluntary as coerced, less like a murder than a death of despair.”