Jeff Bezos Announces Resignation of Washington Post Opinion Editor Over New Editorial Mandate in Stunning Statement
https://www.mediaite.com/news/jeff-bezos-announces-resignation-of-washington-post-opinion-editor-over-new-editorial-mandate-in-stunning-statement/Open linkView original on lemmy.world649
Comments122
They had us in the first half, not gonna lie
Instead, he asked Freedom Of the Press to step down.
What position would Bezos resign from, out of curiosity?
Being alive, ideally
returning his to his form as alien scout for invasion.
Democracy dies in the free market.
Who wants democracy, when we can have an anarcho-capitalist libertarian utopia?
I hate that edgelord libertarians are trying to rebrand themselves as "anarcho-capatalist". Anarchy and capitalism are antithetical to one another. It doesn't have anything to do with anarchy if you aren't evaluating hierarchy, and capitalism is literally one of the most hierarchical organizational structures possible.
So, sociopath.
That's like a narcissist hat on top of a sociopath hat. It's a hat on a hat.
Fun fact: Conservatism was literally invented by a monarchist in the aftermath of the French revolution trying to find a way for an aristocracy to exist within democracy.
I would like to read more about this shitstain, and why I should throw axes at a printed out image of his face. Name and source?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke
I at least was talking about Burke, whose most influential work was talking about the French revolution, not the English revolution(s). That one was, at least in the start, a proper democracy.
It's anarchy for the hierarchies, not for the components of the hierarchies
Actually, American style " libertarianism" IS anarcho-capitalism. They've just been trying to keep that a secret until recently.
Yes, and no. Anarcho-capitalism is anarchic in the colloquial "no rules, no order" sense, whereas political anarchy very much isn't.
The stupidity of the term is what makes it apt, though: the people politically illiterate enough to think that a total lack of regulations and worker's rights would lead to anything resembling freedom also think that the colloquial definition of anarchy is the politically accurate one.
At least guns and ammo will be plentiful because the market will soon demand more.
Ammoseek is pretty good for ammo. Just be careful around the low rated vendors
Thank you. What about good gun deals?
People voted for the leopards, you can't say it's not democracy.
I see this comment a lot, and I legit don't think we did. I think it's weird how Elon had this team of hackers ready to go for Doge. The weird, "they'll never know what we did" comment out of his kid who seemed to be imitating Elon in the Tucker Carlson interview, and Trump's odd vote counting computers comment has me seriously thinking they hacked it. I think they both had their backs against the wall. Trump with his criminal prosecution, and musk with the starlink investigation.
With Elon, let's start at the smallest issue. Recently Musk has talked about how he's like the greatest gamer ever and is ranked super high in a bunch of games. Turns out he's just paying people to grind those games and boost his ranking. He's so concerned about being on top that he's willing to hire people to get a top the leader board and lie about how good he is to stroke his own ego. It's a very small thing, but points to a larger pattern of behavior for Musk.
Now, onto the Ukraine thing. If anyone remembers, he wouldn't let Ukraine use starlink for an attack because he was "worried it'd start a nuclear war." Whether it would or wouldn't was not up to him as the guy selling Internet satellites to the government. He had provided all the starlink kits to Ukraine during a war to help them, and the US was paying it. He was not supposed to be the arbiter of what they could/ couldn't be used for. I wouldn't be surprised if they were going to come after him for treason as he actively aided a (then) adversary through this action.
https://apnews.com/article/spacex-ukraine-starlink-russia-air-force-fde93d9a69d7dbd1326022ecfdbc53c2
Trump and Musk had to win, or they were fucked. The guy that worked for Doge happened to make a sketchy ballot counting app which you can read about below that could have been used to disqualify dem ballots.
https://bsky.app/profile/denisedwheeler.bsky.social/post/3lhowh3ijgs2f
Elon has always found ways around the rules. When his company needed money all of the sudden magically the value exploded. I think he was involved in squeezing the stock price up through the use of call options, and once that happened, they were able to raise money in the form of multiple stock sales. You can read this now 5 year old thread that proves itself time and time again. Do I have any proof Elon was behind this? No, but who has enough money to do something like this?
https://www.reddit.com/r/options/comments/hk7nqe/tesla_infinity_call_gamma_squeeze/
When the election came in 2024, Elon gave away (illegally I might add) $100 to anyone who registered Republican. There had to be something nefarious going on there too. I would not be surprised if they thought anyone who took them up on that was only doing it for the free money and wasn't actually going to vote so they cast ballots in their names. Again, I have no proof, but if anyone would have the will to do something so shitty to win, it'd be him.
As for Trump, Jack Smith said they had enough evidence to convict Trump, and only couldn't because of arbitrary sitting president rules. They have like a 99% conviction rate for a reason.
Trump and Musk are absolutely petty enough to bend / break rules and laws to get what they want, and are going to go all out to avoid prison. I strongly believe that this is not what we voted for, and we are going to be stuck with this the rest of our lives because what is happening cannot be undone, and they will cling to power as long as possible to avoid facing any consequences. They will break everything and fire anyone who was involved in any way shape or form in any of the investigations and will break the system beyond repair to ensure that they remain in power. Elections are still going to happen, but they will never be voted out.
That's a very well written comment, and Elon and trump certainly have committed more crimes than we can count, but the polls before the election were all pointing to the same result, so trumps victory wasn't a major upset. I don't think they hacked the election, I think the people are that dumb.
A real democracy wouldn't allow a fascist to even run for office. Advocating for fascism and authoritarianism in a republic isn't a valid political stance. It's sedition.
Well, if over 50% of votes agree, is it sedition? The American people wanted the treasonous, corrupt, criminal, draft dodger sexual predator as president. We might not like it, but it's what the majority wanted.
*Plurality and it's still sedition on the part of the leaders. If you advocate for authoritarianism in a republic then you are inherently advocating for overthrowing the republic. You are advocating for some people to have rights, while others don't.
It doesn't matter if a majority of voters want that, they don't have the right to strip the minority of their right to representation.
All authoritarian ideologies are inherently incompatible with the concept of natural rights
Those who don't vote make an explicit choice, so it is a majority.
And the fascist, dictatorial intentions were known from the beginning so kind of hard to argue with the result.
People voted to convert the republic to an empire.
In a more democratic system there wouldn’t be president Trump because there would be no presidents. So I disagree with the premise.
The presidency is fundamentally undemocratic, regardless of the quasi-performative democratic ritual by which he is selected.
"free" "market"
Capitalism
Bezos can get fucked.
And not in the good way.
I propose a backwards pineapple
I wrote a haiku for this sort of thing!
Anal pineapples
Should be administered
Sideways forever
I've got a rusty pitchfork. Will that work?
Zuck's taking care of that with Jeff's wife
Billionaire meddling turns a respected paper into a megaphone for personal agendas.
😼😼
The people who previously respected the WaPo are part of the problem.
That is termination, not resignation.
Fucking scumbag.
Last time I looked at Amazon's books, their retail arm was barely profitable. Most of their actual profits came from AWS.
Azure (MS) or GCP (Google) are the alternatives.
Or if you want to avoid Big Tech altogether, there’s DigitalOcean, Akamai, Linode, IBM, Cloudflare, and a handful of other point providers.
If I had been drinking anything when I read that it would have ended up all over my screen.
IBM used to be big. They still are, but they used to be too.
You have to be careful as some providers and PaaS use AWS under the hood.
For example Heroku is essentially a nice skin over AWS.
B&H photo isn't just "owned by religious folks". They staff everything above the warehouse exclusively with Hasidic Orthodox Jewish men.
Afaik they aren't tied to supporting Zionism. They had some problems a decade ago with safety standards and union busting.
And their website won't let you order anything on the Sabbath, which drives me insane. I'm not expecting anyone to be working on the weekend, but computers don't need to take breaks!!
I want a non profit/open source store aggregator where we can search for what we want like Amazon but direct is to the site with the item we are looking for.
Like pcpartpicker, but for everything!
For software, I started this directory: CookieSlayers
Most of the software there is open source, but not all of it. Nevertheless, it's about companies/services/products that operate a bit more ethically.
Ooh neat.
Isn't proton mail run by shitheads though?
Thanks
This is only for software, and focused around tracking cookies (or lack thereof), but maybe it can expand to consumer goods: CookieSlayers
I agree, but also they don't make their money from sales. They make money from AWS servers/ services. I would bet that they lose money or maybe slightly break even on every sale of a physical item.
Yeah, the warehouses are quite badly run.
Edit; I’ve had a beer. In my experience of the one I’ve worked in.
This has actually always been the case. Iirc, AWS was the only profitable piece of Amazon for years. The retail and consumer services arms will never catch up.
Are any lemmy instances hosted on AWS?
Amazon is a server hosting company that happens to sell cheap junk.
All of lemmy shopping Prime is a drop in the oceans of the millions per month my company pays aws
"V0te with ur d0ll4rzzz!!!"
Do you actually think the next best option is actually good? There is no escape from capitalism.
this is a very interesting sentence to find in a post that outlines the ways in which the opinion page will be losing some of its editorial freedom.
War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength.
In the grimdark future of the 2nd millennium, there is only way.
It's also gotta be one of the worst sentences I've ever read, yikes. Maybe get an editor to look it over.
Yeah two em dashes in a single sentence is too many, and that one's got three
Hey, I like to think that sometimes I might feel the need to write remarkably similar sentences to the kinds that you, u/bearboiblake might have referenced in this particular editorial expression of human nature and sentiment in America, today.
-You know, badly,
They did. They just looked at it and said "hell yes" while sweating profusely.
That's exactly what a journalistic organisation is meant to do Jeff, especially now when the world is increasingly being filled with mouthpieces that regurgitate what their owners want them to.
An organisation that puts out only one opinion, or is only allowed to put out one opinion, is nothing more than a mouthpiece.
Its a shame to see the Post becoming just another mouthpiece.
The gall of these billionaires to just buy a news organization and then blatantly state "we're not going to do news anymore" is just incredible.
Even Rupert Murdock had the courtesy to come up with the Fox News "Fair and Balanced" slogan (even though it was completely full of shit).
Bezos is just like "yeah we're going full on propaganda, go fuck yourself."
On the other end, you've got billionaire Jeff Lawson rescuing The Onion from private equity hell. I count their revived print subscription as one of the best things I've spent money on recently, considering it used to be free.
TBH the honesty is refreshing compared to the historical bullshit.
True, but it was just an internal memo. I'm sure the public-facade won't be as honest.
Among many reasons, I'll never subscribe to WP again. I used to.
I used to as well. And I'm Canadian.
Never again as long as that asshole owns the paper.
Historically, journalism was about sifting through the different things that multiple people say are true, in order to figure out what actually is true.
But now it can just be about what one person says is true, and the internet can figure out what’s actually true!
Raised eyebrows? Is mild-washing a word? It should be.
You misspelled propaganda.
All of these capitalist propaganda outlets pump out the same imperial message. The firing of this one guy won't change that at all.
what's "stunning" about the statement?
All I saw was:
I assumed the stunning part was this:
It's just pretty blatant.
This one is especially hilarious in the Trump Tariffs era.
It's possible you'll read articles critical of those decisions written by the WSJ. They're likely to be written in such a way as to not criticize Trump directly, but the message will likely be clear: government and taxes=bad.
How is this any different from their prior propaganda? Just the overt declaration?
Bezos constructed resignation, which is legally termination, not resignation at all.
Most decent manufacturers have their own website and fast shipping. I had to leave Amazon just for the fake and damaged merchandise alone.
Yeah, I am currently dealing with my last couple returns through them before I can properly cancel. I consider it punishment for not doing it earlier.
Ordered an ergo trackball, got sent the wrong model. Now since it's through a third party seller my return documentation says I need to call the seller, on the god damned telephone, for a free return label rather than paying for postage myself. I haven't even shipped the return yet and I have already been using one I bought direct from Logitech that was cheaper and arrived in 1-2 days with their free "4-7 day" shipping.
I am also awaiting my third copy of a monitor that comes with a no dead pixel guarantee. The number of dead pixels has been nonzero and increasing with each new monitor. This isn't necessarily Amazon's fault -- it took 3 tries to get my old 50" Panasonic plasma without a dead pixel -- but sending returns right back out the door is entirely likely too. I have bought and returned far more expensive things that absolutely looked like they were used (pro camera lenses for one).
For those on the fence on quitting Amazon: you can still use the website and shop, just search for the manufacturers website on stuff you want and purchase direct from them.
You know, like going to a book store and ordering the books you find there from Amazon.
Also even if something very specific that you want isn't available outside of Amazon, that's all the more reason to definitely not buy it and message the manufacturer/seller and let them know why you're not buying it. Boycotts will sometimes mean not buying something you really want to buy, that's working as designed.
Why would anybody pay for stuff that's completely free to download?
Maybe they gotta pay for a VPN but that's quite affordable and people should be doing that anyway.
Interestingly, the Post and the NYT both lean heavily on their Opinion sections to pretend they're not licking boots. Now the Post won't have that option.
He's basically making the exact same argument as Faux News did, 30 years or more after anyone reasonable realized that they were blatantly lying.
The fascism is happening.
Took about a month
I’d say a couple weeks. Keep preparing yourself..
Can't wait for trans right and abortion opinion piece. No freedom gets more personal.
So employees coerced into working shit jobs or overtime aren't free, thanks for clearing that up.
Hell, yes.
I am really lost here. Is the idea to attract the exact same (super niche) readership as the wall street journal? We know from this election that there are very few voters in this domain, since this is exactly the type of voter Harris tried (and failed to) attract.
Somewhat ironically we have gone from the very bad outcome of for-profit media, to the even worse outcome of newspapers as personal vanity projects for out of touch billionaires.
Wow, you mean he was an enormous sack of shit the whole time??
What a pompous cunt.
Washington Post was one of the few marginally respectable journalist organizations remaining. It's a sad day for the freedom of the press.
lol
Maybe try looking up this word in a dictionary, it seems like you don't understand what it means.
What contemporary paragon of journalistic integrity do you subscribe to, if I may ask? Which organization is more respectable than WP?
Maybe it's time for people to start submitting Opinion pieces detailing how we can use the free market to make companies regret discontinuing their DEI programs or Pride merchandise, or telling how bodily autonomy and control over one's reproductive equipment is a central pillar of personal liberty.
Editing to add: in the event your submission is rejected, consider adding an opener such as: "This article was rejected by The Washington Post despite meeting their criteria of focus on the free market (or personal liberty)." And then submitting it to one or several of their competitors. Even the ones that aren't any better, pitting their competitive instincts against their conservativism.
You're right, it's time. Apes together strong.
Your mistake is assuming that these people actually care about "free" "markets", "personal liberty", etc.
Oh I still think it would be interesting to try, and once rejected send the items to their competitors with the prompt "rejected by WaPo despite being about the topics they claim to support." After all, I can only cancel my subscription once, but making sure others are aware of this enshittification might lead them to cancel theirs as well. Whether it's by my item being published or by sparking a followup story by a competitor doesn't matter to me.
So buying a major newspaper and firing (or putting pressure on) anybody who doesn't agree with the new owner's "pillars" is not coercion? Did Bezos get this buff from the mental gymnastics?
PS: surprised nobody mentioned Manufacturing Consent yet, which describes exactly what is happening here, and remains valid in the age of Internet
Ah yes, the "personal liberty" to just accumulate wealth without limits or taxation because that is a "free market". Never mind Amazon drives on roads built with federal dollars—they are a job creator and everyone should lick their boots for that.
Just dragging this newspaper into the right wing muck at full speed now
"Market of ideas" but you're only allowed to say what I like
Buy your axe grinding wheels now before it's hard to keep them in stock.
Someone assassinate this guy, please
All billionaires plz. There's not a single good one out there.
You can assassinate a capitalist but you can't assassinate capitalism.
Sounds like he wants more direct control.
Trash capitalist propaganda is becoming even worse? I'm shocked. Shocked!!! \s
It's a good thing I stopped bothering with the Washington Post even before Bezos bought it. In fact pretty much every news organization that is owned by a singular entity is completely worthless nowadays.
Is he trying to "get out in front of this story" like he did with the photos of him having an affair? Has anyone heard from David Shipley what happened?
I find it important that he writes, that freedom of individuals and markets is important because it is without coercion.
To then go on and write that he tried to coerce his editor to accept the change with a "hell yes" or basically resign. This is coercion. Doesn't he see this? Is the irony lost on him?
He doesn't give a fuck about whether his statements reflect reality at all, he only cares that his statements push reality towards being like how he thinks it ought to be, with him in charge and us under his thumb
Everyone should resign. Or strike. Striking would be better
"Democracy dies in darkness"
Honestly, the whole paper should just be entirely blacked out.
Mmm. Well, I'll take a look at their editorials, see where this is going. I don't have a problem with personal liberties and free markets, but there can be baggage that comes with that.