Hundreds Of Washington Post Staffers Sign Letter to Jeff Bezos — Pleading With Him to Restore ‘Trust That Has Been Lost’
AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke
Over 400 Washington Post journalists sent a scathing letter on Wednesday to Amazon founder and Post owner Jeff Bezos urging him to come meet with the paper’s leadership and make a course correction as they fear readers now “question the integrity of this institution.”
The letter comes in the wake of Bezos intervening to stop the Post from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. A quarter million subscribers canceled their subscriptions in the wake of the move, which also prompted editorial board members to resign in protest. In recent weeks, Bezos has cozied up to President-elect Donald Trump with a donation to his inauguration and top talent has been leaving the paper en masse.
“You recently wrote that ensuring the long-term success and editorial independence of this newspaper is essential. We agree, and we believe you take as much pride in The Washington Post as we do,” began the letter, which was reportedly signed by such heavyweights at the paper as Dan Balz, Pooh Shapiro, and Carol Leonnig.
“We are deeply alarmed by recent leadership decisions that have led readers to question the integrity of this institution, broken with a tradition of transparency, and prompted some of our most distinguished colleagues to leave, with more departures imminent. This goes far beyond the issue of the presidential endorsement, which we recognize as the owner’s prerogative. This is about retaining our competitive edge, restoring trust that has been lost, and reestablishing a relationship with leadership based on open communication,” the letter continued, adding:
We urge you to come to our office and meet with Post leaders, as you have in the past, about what has been happening at The Post. We understand the need for change, and we are eager to deliver the news in innovative ways. But we need a clear vision we can believe in.
We are committed to pursuing independent journalism that holds power to account and to reporting the news without fear or favor. That will never change. Nothing will shake our determination to follow the reporting wherever it leads.
As you wrote when you first became The Post’s owner in 2013, “The values of The Post do not need changing.” We urge you to stand with us in reaffirming those values.
Bezos hired former Wall Street Journal and Telegraph editor Will Lewis as CEO and publisher of the Post last summer. Lewis, who the Guardian described as “a former Rupert Murdoch protege” has proven to be a controversial hire. The Guardian noted that “Lewis courted controversy shortly after arriving when he tried to stop the newspaper from running a story that reported he was expected to be named in the hacking case brought by Prince Harry and others. Lewis further failed to endear himself to staff when he reportedly forced out Sally Buzbee, the Post’s first female editor, and told journalists at an internal meeting: ‘People are not reading your stuff.’”
The Post’s digital traffic has continued to suffer, in November the site brought in 54 million digital visitors, less than half the 114 million it raked in during November 2020, according to Comscore data.
