Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
So buying a major newspaper and firing (or putting pressure on) anybody who doesn’t agree with the new owner’s “pillars” is not coercion? Did Bezos get this buff from the mental gymnastics?
PS: surprised nobody mentioned Manufacturing Consent yet, which describes exactly what is happening here, and remains valid in the age of Internet
Maybe it’s time for people to start submitting Opinion pieces detailing how we can use the free market to make companies regret discontinuing their DEI programs or Pride merchandise, or telling how bodily autonomy and control over one’s reproductive equipment is a central pillar of personal liberty.
Editing to add: in the event your submission is rejected, consider adding an opener such as: “This article was rejected by The Washington Post despite meeting their criteria of focus on the free market (or personal liberty).” And then submitting it to one or several of their competitors. Even the ones that aren’t any better, pitting their competitive instincts against their conservativism.
Your mistake is assuming that these people actually care about “free” “markets”, “personal liberty”, etc.
Oh I still think it would be interesting to try, and once rejected send the items to their competitors with the prompt “rejected by WaPo despite being about the topics they claim to support.” After all, I can only cancel my subscription once, but making sure others are aware of this enshittification might lead them to cancel theirs as well. Whether it’s by my item being published or by sparking a followup story by a competitor doesn’t matter to me.
You’re right, it’s time. Apes together strong.
There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views.
That’s exactly what a journalistic organisation is meant to do Jeff, especially now when the world is increasingly being filled with mouthpieces that regurgitate what their owners want them to.
An organisation that puts out only one opinion, or is only allowed to put out one opinion, is nothing more than a mouthpiece.
Its a shame to see the Post becoming just another mouthpiece.
You misspelled propaganda.
Among many reasons, I’ll never subscribe to WP again. I used to.
I used to as well. And I’m Canadian.
Never again as long as that asshole owns the paper.
The gall of these billionaires to just buy a news organization and then blatantly state “we’re not going to do news anymore” is just incredible.
Even Rupert Murdock had the courtesy to come up with the Fox News “Fair and Balanced” slogan (even though it was completely full of shit).
Bezos is just like “yeah we’re going full on propaganda, go fuck yourself.”
TBH the honesty is refreshing compared to the historical bullshit.
True, but it was just an internal memo. I’m sure the public-facade won’t be as honest.
On the other end, you’ve got billionaire Jeff Lawson rescuing The Onion from private equity hell. I count their revived print subscription as one of the best things I’ve spent money on recently, considering it used to be free.
All of these capitalist propaganda outlets pump out the same imperial message. The firing of this one guy won’t change that at all.
Historically, journalism was about sifting through the different things that multiple people say are true, in order to figure out what actually is true.
But now it can just be about what one person says is true, and the internet can figure out what’s actually true!
Bezos’s exercise of greater control over the Post‘s journalism in recent months has raised eyebrows.
Raised eyebrows? Is mild-washing a word? It should be.
It’s a good thing I stopped bothering with the Washington Post even before Bezos bought it. In fact pretty much every news organization that is owned by a singular entity is completely worthless nowadays.
Jeff Bezos Announces Resignation
They had us in the first half, not gonna lie
Instead, he asked Freedom Of the Press to step down.
What position would Bezos resign from, out of curiosity?
returning his to his form as alien scout for invasion.
Being alive, ideally
Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
this is a very interesting sentence to find in a post that outlines the ways in which the opinion page will be losing some of its editorial freedom.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
In the grimdark future of the 2nd millennium, there is only way.
It’s also gotta be one of the worst sentences I’ve ever read, yikes. Maybe get an editor to look it over.
They did. They just looked at it and said “hell yes” while sweating profusely.
Hey, I like to think that sometimes I might feel the need to write remarkably similar sentences to the kinds that you, u/bearboiblake might have referenced in this particular editorial expression of human nature and sentiment in America, today.
-You know, badly,
Yeah two em dashes in a single sentence is too many, and that one’s got three
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
Just dragging this newspaper into the right wing muck at full speed now
I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.
“Market of ideas” but you’re only allowed to say what I like
Everyone should resign. Or strike. Striking would be better
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. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.
I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. 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.
I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no.” After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.
I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.
I am really lost here. Is the idea to attract the exact same (super niche) readership as the wall street journal? We know from this election that there are very few voters in this domain, since this is exactly the type of voter Harris tried (and failed to) attract.
Somewhat ironically we have gone from the very bad outcome of for-profit media, to the even worse outcome of newspapers as personal vanity projects for out of touch billionaires.
The idea is to stifle another well-established (though pro-establishment) voice of independent journalism.
Can’t wait for trans right and abortion opinion piece. No freedom gets more personal.
Hell, yes.
Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion
So employees coerced into working shit jobs or overtime aren’t free, thanks for clearing that up.
No, no. Those workers are entering into a contract with just as much power as the asshole billionaire owner has. But demanding that asshole billionaire to pay a fair rate of tax-- that’s coercion.
There, did I do the libertarian doublethink dance right?
Bezos can get fucked.
Zuck’s taking care of that with Jeff’s wife
And not in the good way.
I propose a backwards pineapple
I’ve got a rusty pitchfork. Will that work?
I wrote a haiku for this sort of thing!
Anal pineapples
Should be administered
Sideways forever
We recently got rid of our subscriptions and canceled Prime. Wish we had done it much sooner, but better late than never.
For those on the fence on quitting Amazon: you can still use the website and shop, just search for the manufacturers website on stuff you want and purchase direct from them.
You know, like going to a book store and ordering the books you find there from Amazon.
Great suggestion!
Also even if something very specific that you want isn’t available outside of Amazon, that’s all the more reason to definitely not buy it and message the manufacturer/seller and let them know why you’re not buying it. Boycotts will sometimes mean not buying something you really want to buy, that’s working as designed.
Most decent manufacturers have their own website and fast shipping. I had to leave Amazon just for the fake and damaged merchandise alone.
I’ve already set up subscriptions with several manufacturers directly through their sites vs ordering through Amazon. Same or better prices, too.
Yeah, I am currently dealing with my last couple returns through them before I can properly cancel. I consider it punishment for not doing it earlier.
Ordered an ergo trackball, got sent the wrong model. Now since it’s through a third party seller my return documentation says I need to call the seller, on the god damned telephone, for a free return label rather than paying for postage myself. I haven’t even shipped the return yet and I have already been using one I bought direct from Logitech that was cheaper and arrived in 1-2 days with their free “4-7 day” shipping.
I am also awaiting my third copy of a monitor that comes with a no dead pixel guarantee. The number of dead pixels has been nonzero and increasing with each new monitor. This isn’t necessarily Amazon’s fault – it took 3 tries to get my old 50" Panasonic plasma without a dead pixel – but sending returns right back out the door is entirely likely too. I have bought and returned far more expensive things that absolutely looked like they were used (pro camera lenses for one).
Why would anybody pay for stuff that’s completely free to download?
Maybe they gotta pay for a VPN but that’s quite affordable and people should be doing that anyway.
Billionaire meddling turns a respected paper into a megaphone for personal agendas.
😼😼
The people who previously respected the WaPo are part of the problem.
He’s basically making the exact same argument as Faux News did, 30 years or more after anyone reasonable realized that they were blatantly lying.
The fascism is happening.
Took about a month
what’s “stunning” about the statement?
All I saw was:
- Opinion Editor did not want to continue to be a meat puppet for this propaganda outlet
- Bezos accepted resignation
- Bezos to look for new meat puppet
I assumed the stunning part was this:
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
It’s just pretty blatant.
free markets
This one is especially hilarious in the Trump Tariffs era.
It’s possible you’ll read articles critical of those decisions written by the WSJ. They’re likely to be written in such a way as to not criticize Trump directly, but the message will likely be clear: government and taxes=bad.
How is this any different from their prior propaganda? Just the overt declaration?
Bezos accepted resignation
Bezos constructed resignation, which is legally termination, not resignation at all.
