Washington Post associate editor and top political columnist Ruth Marcus is reportedly resigning following CEO Will Lewis’ decision to kill her opinion column critical of owner Jeff Bezos’ latest changes to the paper.
“It is with great sadness that I submit my resignation as columnist and associate editor of the Washington Post,” Marcus wrote in a letter addressed to publisher Will Lewis and billionaire Jeff Bezos and posted on X by a New York Times media reporter.
Last month, Bezos announced changes to the opinion section that appeared to more closely align the Post with the political right, saying that only columns that supported “personal liberties and free markets” would henceforth be published.
More than 75,000 digital readers of the Post canceled their subscriptions in the 48 hours following Bezos revealing his intentions. David Shipley, the opinions editor, stepped down after failing to dissuade Bezos from implementing these new mandates.
In the resignation email, Marcus says that she was honored to write commentary that readers of the Post could know would consist of her “best independent judgment”. The letter goes on to say: “Unfortunately, on the opinion side of the newspaper, that appears to be no longer the case.”
“Jeff’s announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets, threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable,” the letter continues.
Marcus goes on to explain in her letter that the decision by Lewis to not run a column she wrote and describes as “respectfully dissenting” from Bezos’ new rules threatens the freedom of newspaper columnists as well as the credibility they build with their readers.
She said the decision to kill the dissenting column is something she has “not experienced in almost two decades of column-writing”.
“I love the Post,” Marcus wrote at the end of her resignation letter. “It breaks my heart to conclude that I must leave.”
