Jeff Bezos makes the implicit explicit in memo to Washington Post staff

Mega billionaire Jeff Bezos made news yesterday
by formally announcing the parameters of the Washington Post opinion section in clear ideological terms,
making explicit what has long been implicit in corporate media

and, like then-New York Times opinion editor James Bennet did seven years ago when he said that the New York Times was
“pro-capitalism,”
effectively doing my job for me.

️“I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars:
personal liberties and free markets,”
the Amazon founder and executive chairman wrote in an open letter to Post employees.

“We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”

As I wrote in 2018 when Times opinion editor James Bennet said in a closed-door meeting with staffers that the Times was a “pro-capitalism” newspaper,
“Media criticism is, more often than not, a practice of inference:
seeing patterns and inferring from those patterns the political make-up of media.

Occasionally, however, decision-makers from major media outlets come right out and openly declare their ideology.”

Bezos has done us a favor by removing the mystery and inference and cheeky “open debate” pretense from the process of inferring the ideological perimeters of corporate media and laid it all out bare.

Obviously this dictate is, in theory, limited to the opinion section, not the news section,
but those working on the other side of the firewall will no doubt take a hearty hint
––if they didn’t the last time Bezos explicitly interfered in the opinion output of the paper.

The fact is that, compared to peer outlets, the Washington Post’s current national labor coverage, while by no means aggressively anti-capitalist, is robust and generally favorable to workers.

Reporters such as #Lauren #Kaori #Gurley
and #Jeff #Stein
and columnist #Perry #Bacon #Jr. have done excellent work
highlighting the plight of Amazon employees and those on the business end of US sanctions,
often in direct contradiction to Bezos’ bottom line and ideological preferences.

While the Post’s local metro coverage, as I’ve documented, has often doubled as an Amazon lobbying front,
its national coverage has often remained independent of the billionaire’s direct control.

Indeed, the Post’s newly anointed chief economics reporter #Jeff #Stein publicly criticized his boss yesterday morning,
writing on social media:
“Bezos declaration Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today
– makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage,
but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know.”
https://therealnews.com/jeff-bezos-makes-the-implicit-explicit-in-memo-to-washington-post-staff