What Jeff Bezos's new direction for the Washington Post opinion section means for the paper — and for us

Maybe it is because it broke the Watergate scandal, or because it's been the subject of lauded films like All the President's Men and The Post. Whatever the reason, it's hard to deny that the Washington Post newspaper holds a special place in the cultural sphere as a standard bearer of journalistic integrity.

Yesterday saw another dramatic twist in the paper's storied history. Jeff Bezos, the tech billionaire and owner of the Post, directed the newspaper's opinion section to focus on pieces supporting "personal liberties and free markets" going forward.

Today on Commotion, author and media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan joins host Elamin Abdelmahmoud to talk about the editorial shift, and what it suggests about how tech billionaires are influencing culture at large.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Elamin: I think usually we have these ideas of when rich people own newspapers, they attempt to influence what happens in those newspapers or media organizations — Rupert Murdoch being the most famous example that people can think of, when they think about Fox News as an instrument that serves some of the interests of Rupert Murdoch's political leanings. It's not normally this transparent, right? 

Even during Jeff Bezos's reign as the owner of the Washington Post, the Washington Post has continued to defend the idea that it's this standard bearer of journalistic integrity.… When you think about all of this, and then you think about how more transparent the decision that Jeff Bezos made this time around in terms of the ways that it aligns with his interests — do you see that as directly undermining the credibility of a newspaper like the Washington Post and its role in democracy?

Siva: I actually wouldn't go that far. Not yet, and here's the reason why. So far, Bezos has put his heavy hand down on the op-eds and editorial page only. There seems to be no direct meddling with the bigger part of the newspaper, which involves news gathering, commentary, analysis and cultural reporting. He has, for instance, allowed critical stories about his own businesses to run in the Washington Post. 

Now, let's compare this to the Wall Street Journal, because you brought up Rupert Murdoch. Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal, and he owns a dozen other papers in Australia, the United Kingdom [and] the United States. All of these papers take, overall, a conservative approach to news. There's no mystery about it. Murdoch's never hidden his disdain for the sort of mushy, middle-of-the-road, neutral approach to journalism. However, the Wall Street Journal still, in its news sections, does outstanding professional investigative journalism, often putting the powers that be in a negative light. But the editorial page is predictively, and actually boringly, right-wing. And I think that's what we're seeing here: the imposition of boring reading into the Washington Post.

Elamin: We should say, Siva, the Washington Post is your local paper. You live just outside of D.C. You've written for this opinion section before. Do you think this changes how you view the paper? Like would you write for them now?

Siva: I would not write for its op-ed page. What's really interesting is Bezos said that everything must be in defense of two pillars, personal liberties and free markets. So, hey, I could whip out an op-ed right now in favor of abortion rights, and in favor of trans rights.

Elamin: That's under the personal liberties. 

Siva: Yeah, and maybe Bezos would be good with that stuff. He seems to have endorsed those sorts of positions in the past. Trump wouldn't like it. Is Bezos going to pander to Trump, or is he going to go with this commitment to personal liberties? I could write about free markets because one of the most important things about free markets is that we have competition in industries. And one of the biggest impediments to competition right now is Amazon. It is a behemoth. It is crushing all competition in multiple markets. It was the subject of intense antitrust investigations by the Biden administration, which is one of the reasons that Bezos turned against the Democrats. He was sick of being investigated and prosecuted on both sides of the Atlantic for his excesses, and abrogations and crushing competition. Hey, I'm all for free markets. I'm more for free markets than Jeff Bezos is.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with Siva Vaidhyanathan produced by Jess Low.