A veteran Washington Post columnist has quit the newspaper after 41 years because bosses wouldn’t let her publish a piece slamming owner Jeff Bezos – and she’s taken the story elsewhere.
In a scorched earth essay for rival outlet The New Yorker, Ruth Marcus explained why she quit.
She’d wanted to publish a long-winded piece complaining about how Bezos was interfering with editorial process.
New boss Will Lewis wouldn’t let her – so she handed in her resignation.
The New Yorker published the op-ed along with her essay, in which she says her complaints were ‘meek’ to the point of embarrassing.
‘I thought that it was important to put my reasons for disagreement on the record,’ Marcus said.
She then complained about journalistic freedoms being ‘dangerously eroded’ under Bezos and Lewis.
‘I love the Post. It breaks my heart to conclude that I must leave’ she said.
‘Whatever his internal motivations, it is asking a lot of readers not to suspect that Bezos’s personal business interests play no role here,’ she went on.
In a scorched earth essay for rival outlet The New Yorker, Ruth Marcus explained why she quit
The longtime opinion writer said it was the spiking of a column that did the trick – one criticizing the paper’s newly announced opinion-section overhaul from Jeff Bezos, seen here at the Oscars earlier this month with fiancée Lauren Sanchez
She blasted Bezos’ appearance at the inauguration as ‘inappropriate’, and pined after the ‘newspaper of a not so distant past.’
There’s been a mass exodus of newspaper staff since Bezos killed their endorsement of Kamala Harris in the election.
Their disdain has grown with his friendship with Trump.
Another columnist, Michelle Norris, also walked out, as have prominent opinions section writers, David Hoffman, Molly Roberts and Robert Kagan.
Opinion editor Amanda Katz and her deputy Charles Lane have also since gone, joined by columnist Jennifer Rubin. All left in January after lengthy, decorated tenures.
The paper’s White House Correspondent, Tyler Pager, left in December, also citing frustration with the paper’s trajectory. He announced he would be rejoining his old employer, the Times, long considered the Post’s main rival.
Following the Opinion page overhaul, the Post’s longtime editorial page editor, David Shipley, left as well.
William Lewis, the new CEO and Publisher of the Washington Post Company has caused quite the stir among staff
‘I am of America and for America, and proud to be so,’ Bezos said in a statement hours before.
‘Our country did not get here by being typical. And 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.’
The Post isn’t the only once liberal paper that’s been bleeding staff since owners became cosy with Trump.
The Los Angeles Times has seen an uprising among staff since owner Patrick Soon-Shiong banned them from endorsing Kamala Harris.
He has since made repeated comments defending his decision.
