In a blistering op-ed, President Donald Trump was slammed as “the actual menace” to “private liberties and free markets” by a Washington Put up columnist after the paper’s proprietor, Jeff Bezos, stated the publication would reject any content material that opposes these two ideas in its opinion part.
“If we as a newspaper, and we as a rustic, are to defend his twin pillars, then we should redouble our struggle in opposition to the only best menace to ‘private liberties and free markets’ in the US as we speak: President Donald Trump,” wrote Dana Milbank in an op-ed published Friday. “The quickly spreading authoritarianism coming from this administration threatens all of our freedoms.”
Milbank elaborated by dissecting Trump’s commerce wars, his challenges to authorized immigration, his politicizing of legislation enforcement and the navy, and his cherry-picking of which media shops obtain White Home entry as a couple of examples of the president’s violation of Bezos’ protected “pillars.”
“The results of Trump’s intolerant actions can already be seen. Inflation has accelerated. Jobless claims jumped greater than anticipated. Client confidence has slid. The inventory market has been risky. Trump’s approval numbers have inched downward,” wrote Milbank.
Bezos, in saying his overhaul of The Put up’s opinion part in a letter to the paper’s workers, argued that the themes of non-public liberties and free markets “are underserved within the present market of concepts and information opinion” and {that a} “broad-based opinion part” is now not wanted since diversifying viewpoints will be discovered elsewhere on the net.
His directive led The Put up’s opinion editor, David Shipley, to resign.
Bezos and Trump reportedly had dinner together mere hours after Bezos introduced the modifications at The Put up.
Since buying the paper in 2013, the billionaire Trump donor and Amazon founder has drummed up controversy over his editorial selections. Final October, Bezos ended The Put up’s custom of endorsing presidential candidates, and final month, opinion cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned after one among her cartoons important of Bezos was killed.
Journalist Gene Weingarten, who spent 20 years as a Put up columnist, stated in a Substack post Thursday that he’s heard of a minimum of one Put up author having their work rejected within the wake of Bezo’s announcement this week.
Put up media critic Erik Wemple had advised colleagues that he would write about Bezos’ order, which Weingarten stated is a part of his job. However in line with some Put up staffers, Wemple’s completed column was rejected for publication, Weingarten wrote.
“It was described to me by somebody who noticed it as ‘extra mystified and saddened than outraged or appalled,’” Weingarten wrote of Wemple’s submitted work. “I’ve been advised one other revered opinions columnist has additionally submitted a chunk on the identical topic. Let’s watch and see what occurs.”
