WASHINGTON POST OWNER JEFF BEZOS SAYS OPINION PAGES WILL DEFEND FREE MARKET AND 'PERSONAL LIBERTIES'

The billionaire owner of The Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, narrowed the topics covered by its opinion section Wednesday to defending personal liberties and the free market, a pivot away from its traditional broad focus and prompting the news outlet's opinion editor to resign.

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Bezos, who also is the founder and largest individual shareholder of Amazon, said on X that "viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others."

The move was received by some as an indication that Bezos is making decisions for the storied news outlet with an eye toward avoiding retaliation by President Donald Trump. Bezos, though, cast the change as a modernization from the days when newspapers offered opinions on a broad range of topics. Now, he said, "the internet does that job."

"We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets," Bezos wrote in his post, adding that the new topics "are right for America. I also believe that these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion." Opinions editor David Shipley resigned rather than lead the shift, Bezos said.

"I suggested to him that if the answer wasn't `hell yes, then it had to be `no! After careful consideration, David decided to step away," Bezos wrote.

The pivot echoes the Wall Street Journal's editorial page banner: "free markets, free people."

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