Let me start by saying I love The Washington Post. To me, it has always been the greatest newspaper in the nation, with outstanding journalists, opinion writers, and content.
I have another reason to love thea Post. I worked there as a copyboy in the summer of 1959. While there, I met my future husband. So I would not be wrong to say that the Post changed my life.
But the estimable Graham family made a terrible mistake when they sold the paper to multibillionaire Jeff Bezos. To the Grahams, the Post was a sacred trust. To Bezos, it’s a business, one of many he owns.
When he first bought the paper, he said he would respect its values, notably its commitment to independent journalism. As publisher, he would not interfere with the editorial side.
He kept his promise until 2024, when he realized that he could not antagonize Trump, because his other businesses dare not antagonize Trump. First, he stopped the editorial board from endorsing Harris. The editorial was written but never printed.
Then he donated $1 million to the Trump inaugural festivities. Then he made a deal to buy Melania’s video about her life for $40 million. The film is expected to cost $12 million. The remaining $28 million goes into her pockets.
Then he told the opinion writers that they should focus on “personal liberties and free markets.” Most understood that diktat to mean “stop criticizing Trump so much,” although one could write many columns about his assault on personal liberties and free markets.
A significant number of acclaimed journalists, editorial writers, and opinion writers left the Post, rather than submit.
So Bezos has a new idea. Cultivate writers from other publications, bloggers, freelance writers, even nonprofessional writers. Use AI to
Edit their submissions. Let humans make final decisions. Sad…especially for a great newspaper that is bleeding talent.
The New York Times wrote about Bezos’ new approach:
The Washington Post has published some of the world’s most influential voices for more than a century, including columnists like George Will and newsmakers like the Dalai Lama and President Trump.
A new initiative aims to sharply expand that lineup, opening The Post to many published opinion articles from other newspapers across America, writers on Substack and eventually nonprofessional writers, according to four people familiar with the plan. Executives hope that the program, known internally as Ripple, will appeal to readers who want more breadth than The Post’s current opinion section and more quality than social platforms like Reddit and X.
The project will host and promote the outside opinion columns on The Post’s website and app but outside its paywall, according to the people, who would speak only anonymously to discuss a confidential project. It will operate outside the paper’s opinion section.
The Post aims to strike some of the initial partnership deals this summer, two of the people said, and the company recently hired an editor to oversee writing for Ripple. A final phase, allowing nonprofessionals to submit columns with help from an A.I. writing coach called Ember, could begin testing this fall. Human editors would review submissions before publication.
Sad.
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