Chuck Darwin<p>Jeff Bezos makes the implicit explicit in memo to Washington Post staff</p><p>Mega billionaire Jeff Bezos made news yesterday <br>by formally announcing the parameters of the Washington Post opinion section in clear ideological terms, <br>making explicit what has long been implicit in corporate media </p><p>and, like then-New York Times opinion editor James Bennet did seven years ago when he said that the New York Times was <br>“pro-capitalism,” <br>effectively doing my job for me. </p><p>⭐️“I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. <br>We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: <br>personal liberties and free markets,” <br>the Amazon founder and executive chairman wrote in an open letter to Post employees. </p><p>“We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”</p><p>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, <br>“Media criticism is, more often than not, a practice of inference: <br>seeing patterns and inferring from those patterns the political make-up of media. </p><p>Occasionally, however, decision-makers from major media outlets come right out and openly declare their ideology.” </p><p>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.</p><p>Obviously this dictate is, in theory, limited to the opinion section, not the news section, <br>but those working on the other side of the firewall will no doubt take a hearty hint<br>––if they didn’t the last time Bezos explicitly interfered in the opinion output of the paper. </p><p>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. </p><p>Reporters such as <a href="https://c.im/tags/Lauren" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Lauren</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Kaori" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Kaori</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Gurley" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Gurley</span></a> <br>and <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jeff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jeff</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Stein" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Stein</span></a> <br>and columnist <a href="https://c.im/tags/Perry" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Perry</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Bacon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Bacon</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jr" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jr</span></a>. have done excellent work <br>highlighting the plight of Amazon employees and those on the business end of US sanctions, <br>often in direct contradiction to Bezos’ bottom line and ideological preferences. </p><p>While the Post’s local metro coverage, as I’ve documented, has often doubled as an Amazon lobbying front, <br>its national coverage has often remained independent of the billionaire’s direct control. </p><p>Indeed, the Post’s newly anointed chief economics reporter <a href="https://c.im/tags/Jeff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Jeff</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/Stein" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Stein</span></a> publicly criticized his boss yesterday morning, <br>writing on social media: <br>“Bezos declaration Massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into The Washington Post’s opinion section today <br>– 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, <br>but if Bezos tries interfering with the news side I will be quitting immediately and letting you know.”<br><a href="https://therealnews.com/jeff-bezos-makes-the-implicit-explicit-in-memo-to-washington-post-staff" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">therealnews.com/jeff-bezos-mak</span><span class="invisible">es-the-implicit-explicit-in-memo-to-washington-post-staff</span></a></p>