Requiem for The Washington Post
The newspaper that brought down a president is dying in darkness – and its billionaire owner lit the match
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THE recent announcement that The Washington Post will lay off one-third of its workforce, eliminating entire sections and gutting its newsroom, marks not just another round of media industry cuts but also the final chapter in one of American journalism’s most precipitous falls from grace. What Jeff Bezos is calling financial necessity is really an autopsy report for a suicide.
The Post’s death spiral began not with market forces but with moral failure. In October 2024, just 11 days before a presidential election, Bezos killed the editorial board’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris.
The decision wasn’t about journalistic neutrality – it was about protecting Amazon and Blue Origin from a potentially vindictive Donald Trump presidency. Over 250,000 subscribers cancelled within days, taking their subscriptions and their trust elsewhere.
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