On Wednesday, Post owner Jeff Bezos emailed staff informing them of the changes to the opinion section, writing that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” While some might opine that publishing opinion articles that only voice a single type of opinion is not much of an opinion section at all, Bezos is clearly uninterested in dissent. Opinions Editor David Shipley resigned with the announcement. In his email, Bezos said that if Shipley couldn’t say “hell yes” to the changes, he would have to say “no,” which he apparently did. NPR reports today that he had unsuccessfully tried to convince Bezos to drop the plans before his resignation. The Washington Post did not immediately respond to The A.V. Club’s request for comment.
The Washington Post is hardly the only company to make recent changes favorable to the second Trump administration, nor is it the only one to see its business affected. CNN reported last week that both Target and Wal-Mart experienced small drops in foot traffic after rolling back their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, while Costco saw an increase in foot traffic after standing by its own. Of course, these specific numbers seem difficult to verify, and correlation does not equal causation, but it is undeniably a topic that people feel strongly about. As for the Post, NPR reports that it was able to rebuild some of its base after the election using “highly discounted rates” to attract new subscribers. Whether that caused, or merely correlates to, a January layoff of roughly 100 staffers is also unclear. Leaving so much to the whims of a few very rich people seems to be working great.
