A veteran Washington Post columnist who quit the newspaper last month has spoken out against owner Jeff Bezos's Trump-friendly transformation of the opinion pages.
Jonathan Capehart, who joined the Post in 2007 and served on its editorial board until 2023, said on MSNBC on Friday that he had chosen to leave because the new demand for "unapologetically patriotic" articles left "[no] room for a voice like mine".
He was among several high-profile journalists and editors who accepted a buyout offered by the Post's new CEO William Lewis to any employees who "do not feel aligned" with Bezos's new order.
The news comes after the Amazon founder and chairman decreed this February that the Post's opinion pages would now pivot to supporting "personal liberties and free markets", while excluding any contrary views.
Asked on air why he had chosen to leave, Capehart said that Bezos — who had a prominent seat at Donald Trump's inauguration and is currently the world's fourth richest person, according to Forbes — had the "right" to make those changes but that they left no space for his perspective.
"It became clear, as time went along, and especially when he chose a new leader for the section, that there was just not going to be any room for a voice like mine, especially when we were told that we would have to be unapologetically patriotic in talking about the positive things happening in the country," Capehart said.
"How can you talk about the positive things happening in the country when the rest of the house is engulfed in flames and the foundation is flooding?” he asked.
"I wanted to go someplace where my voice would be heard."
By "new leader", Capehart was referring to the paper's new opinion editor Adam O'Neal, who vowed in June to publish "unapologetically patriotic" articles "rooted in fundamental optimism about the future of this country".
Capehart had previously quit the Post’s editorial board in 2023 after an editorial that he felt minimized systemic racism was published over his objections. At the time, he was the board’s only Black member.
When Bezos bought the 147-year-old newspaper in 2013, he promised that its "values... [did] not need changing" and that it would not be beholden "to the private interests of its owners".
"I won’t be leading The Washington Post day-to-day," he added.
That all changed starting in October 2024, 11 days before election day, when Bezos reportedly intervened personally in order to block the editorial board's planned endorsement of Kamala Harris, breaking with decades of tradition.
Since then there has been an exodus of longtime workers, with many complaining that they were subject to increased editorial meddling or even directly blocked from criticizing Bezos.
"I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in the candidacy of Donald Trump. I find it untenable and unconscionable that we have lost our voice at this perilous moment," wrote former editorial board member and Pulitzer Prize winner David Hoffman when he resigned last October.
The Washington Post has been asked for comment.
Comments