There was another meltdown at the Washington Post after owner Jeff Bezos moved again to moderate the newspaper’s message, which has plummeted in readership. Bezos told the editors that he wanted the newspaper to advocate for individual liberties and the free market. The message sent the left into vapors and led to the resignation of Washington Post opinion editor David Shipley. Outside the paper, another round of calls for boycotts and subscription cancellations followed.
In the announcement below, Bezos declared, “I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.”
He added that a newspaper should be a voice for freedom — “is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.” He noted that:
“There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.”
For those of us in the free speech community, the return of the Post as a champion of free speech and other individual rights would be a welcomed change. Notably, staff did not object when prior owners aligned with their views on editorial priorities.
Obviously, we will need to see how this new directive is carried out. I would be equally opposed to the Post purging liberal views in the way it moved against conservative and libertarian views for the last decade. I do not see such a directive in this announcement. Bezos wants his newspaper to be a voice for individual freedom and free market principles. That should not mean that the newspaper will not run any dissenting views on policies and programs. It does mean that the newspaper will continue to be an outlet for voicing extreme views calling for the curtailment of free speech and other individual rights.
What is striking is that many on the left expect Bezos to run the newspaper like a vanity project, losing millions of dollars to bankroll a far-left agenda. This is an announcement that goes to the position of the newspaper, not any intrusion into reporting. It also does not bar a diversity of opinion on the op-ed pages which still have a vast majority of liberal writers.
The thought that the Post would now focus on advocating for individual rights and the free market led Jeffrey Evan Gold, who posts as a legal analyst for CNN and other networks, to declare that it was the “last straw” and post his cancellation.
Jeff Stein, the publisher’s chief economics reporter, denounced Bezos as carrying out a “massive encroachment” that makes it clear “dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there.” For many moderates and conservatives, it was a crushingly ironic objection given the virtual purging of conservative and libertarian voices at the newspaper.
Amanda Katz, who resigned from the Post’s opinion team at the end of 2024, offered a vivid example of the culture that Bezos is trying to change at the Post. Katz said the change was “an absolute abandonment of the principles of accountability of the powerful, justice, democracy, human rights, and accurate information that previously animated the section in favor of a white male billionaire’s self-interested agenda.”
Just as a reminder, Bezos simply stated that the newspaper would advocate for freedom and free markets.
However, the most telling condemnation came from Post columnist Philip Bump, who wrote “what the actual f**k.” Not surprisingly, Bump wrote the condemnation on Bluesky, a site that promises a type of safe space for liberals who do not want to be triggered by opposing views.
Bump previously had a meltdown in an interview when confronted about past false claims. After I wrote a column about the litany of such false claims, the Post surprised many of us by issuing a statement that it stood by all of Bump’s reporting, including false columns on the Lafayette Park protests, Hunter Biden’s laptop, and other stories. That was long after other media debunked the claims, but the Post stood by the false reporting.
We have previously discussed the sharp change in culture at the Post, which became an outlet that pushed anti-free speech views and embraced advocacy journalism. The result was that many moderates and conservatives stopped reading the newspaper.
In my book on free speech, I discuss at length how the Post and the mainstream media has joined an alliance with the government and corporations in favor of censorship and blacklisting. I once regularly wrote for the Post and personally witnessed the sharp change in editorial priorities as editors delayed or killed columns with conservative or moderate viewpoints.
Last year, that culture was vividly on display when the newspaper offered no objection or even qualification after its reporter, Cleve Wootson Jr., appeared to call upon the White House to censor the interview of Elon Musk with former President Donald Trump. Under the guise of a question, Wootson told White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre “I think that misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign issue…it’s an America issue.”
There was a time when a reporter calling for censorship of a political opponent would have been a matter for immediate termination in the media. Instead, the newspaper that prides itself on the slogan “Democracy dies in Darkness,” was entirely silent. No correction. No qualification.
The call for censorship for disinformation is ironic given the Post’s publication of a series of false stories and conspiracy theories. When confronted about the columnist’s demonstrably false statements, the Post simply shrugged.
The Wootson controversy was consistent with the embrace of advocacy journalism at the Post. We previously discussed the release of the results of interviews with over 75 media leaders by former executive editor for The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. and former CBS News President Andrew Heyward. They concluded that objectivity is now considered reactionary and even harmful. Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle said it plainly: “Objectivity has got to go.”
The former Post editor, Downie, recounted how news leaders:
“believe that pursuing objectivity can lead to false balance or misleading “bothsidesism” in covering stories about race, the treatment of women, LGBTQ+ rights, income inequality, climate change and many other subjects. And, in today’s diversifying newsrooms, they feel it negates many of their own identities, life experiences and cultural contexts, keeping them from pursuing truth in their work.”
The decline of the Post has followed a familiar pattern. The editors and reporters simply wrote off half of their audience and became a publication for largely liberal and Democratic readers. In these difficult economic times with limited revenue sources, it is a lethal decision.
Robert Lewis, a British media executive who joined the Post earlier this year, reportedly got into a “heated exchange” with a staffer. Lewis explained that, while reporters were protesting measures to expand readership, the very survival of the paper was now at stake:
“We are going to turn this thing around, but let’s not sugarcoat it. It needs turning around,” Lewis said. “We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
Other staffers could not get past the gender and race of those who would oversee them. One staffer complained, “We now have four White men running three newsrooms.”
So, let’s recap: The Washington Post’s owner has been pushing the newspaper to shift back toward the middle and restore greater balance on its pages. He is unwilling to bankroll a far-left echo chamber of advocacy journalism.
Washington Post opinion editor David Shipley resigned in protest rather than agree to emphasize individual rights and free markets in editorials that speak for the newspaper.
Shipley previously fought to reverse Bezos’s decision not to endorse presidential candidates in 2024 or later elections. Some of us have long argued that newspapers should end such endorsements as inimical to journalistic neutrality and objectivity. The editors reportedly encouraged Bezos that, if he wanted to end such endorsements, he should wait until after endorsing Harris in this election cycle — a remarkable position devoid of any cognizable or controlling principle.
There was a time when advocating for editorials to champion freedom would not have been controversial. The staff’s hyperventilation only reinforces the need for such an intervention. These same voices supported the Post adopting “Democracy dies in Darkness” to oppose what they viewed as an attack on democracy from Trump or the right. However, advocating for freedom in editorials is simply unacceptable.
Perish the thought that a newspaper would commit itself to advocating for individual rights and the free market. (Warning foul language below)
Perhaps the Post could adopt a new slogan: “Freedom dies in Silence.”
Here is the announcement from Jeff Bezos:
I shared this note with the Washington Post team this morning: I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.
I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. 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. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision.
We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction. I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.
Jeff
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Good article, Professor. A bit disappointing that you didn’t spend more time on the fact that the Bezos “dictate” rings so hollow to those of us who protested the virulence of Post bias going back decades. Bezos bought the Post to give himself a platform from which he could attack Trump’s first administration and neutralize the influence of Conservatives and their causes. He has had years to implement this new found policy of balance and fairness. Has he moved to bring balance and fairness to the Post? Not really. Cosmetic changes at best. The message, the agenda and the virulence remained, as did the people who dedicated themselves to making the Post the icon of the hard Progressive Left and a shill for the Democrat Party. So, we’ll see. Just don’t expect any real change. It’s not likely.
Clarke, I’d like to think “you never know — sometimes people do have epiphanies in their belief system.” It happens.
I think many who were once mainstream liberals thought, “Yeah, there are a lot of people who are “different” from those of us who are successful in our society and those people have been marginalized and so wouldn’t it be good to lean on the scales to help “those people” have a better shot at success?”
Sounds like a reasonable enough sentiment. But, what those once-mainstream liberals had no clue about was that they were full-on enabling a core of people — smart people, influential people, professors even — who hate America exactly because it munificently rewards meritocracy and who are driven to use Marxist ideologies to undermine it permanently. These people, once enabled by the Bezos’s of the world, have worked to co-opt anyone who feels “non-mainstream” to that ideology. And they have succeeded in large part.
I honestly believe the Bezos’s of the world had no idea what they were unleashing. They now see and they are aghast. Let’s hope there are many more like Bezos who can turn our ship around. Doing that will require “marginalizing” people who want to see the American system overthrown….but, ironically, many of those people are exactly the people that the Bezos’s of the world thought they would be helping to be part of the “American Dream.”
Ideology — belief systems, whether religious or secular by typical criteria — are the root of conflict. And when opposing ideologies are deeply enough held and entrenched, the outcome is rarely good. Bezos has chosen unwisely….let’s hope his conversion is real because it is certainly wise.
Let me add as postscript, I believe that people who are not “typical” (and this could be by race, gender identity, personality, physical appearance, etc.) are to be valued equally as human beings and accepted for what they want and are able to contribute to the happiness of others. It’s not easy to be “different,” and those who are do face challenges. However, using force or undue coercion — as DEI has been doing — to change the ideology of another or right any possible wrong is not acceptable. Two wrongs do not make a right.
And as we are witnessing, disregarding the meritocracy for “feel good” actions hurt all Americans, but mostly those who were indoctrinated to think that their happenstance warranted a “special” treatment just because it (in and of itself) sounded like the passionate thing to do at the moment without on whit of thought as to the eventual outcome of fat lesbians telling you that you are in the wrong place when you are a 300 lb man in a burning building.
To its credit, unlike most so-called Conservative news outlets, the Washington Post provided a regular column by one of America’s last real conservatives – George Will.
George Will is the closest writings aligned with Ronald Reagan and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
There are virtually zero real conservatives left in Congress and on conservative news outlets promoting limited constitutional governance.
Crybaby loser ^^^
” the Washington Post provided a regular column by one of America’s last real conservatives – George Will. ”
The proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes. George Will described himself as a conservative, and frequently wrote a column that seemed sympathetic to conservative ideals, but ultimately turned out to be just another inside-the-beltway poser, voting for Biden in 2020 and Harris in 2024. I could see a true conservative opting not to vote for Donald Trump, but voting for Biden and Harris forever denies Will’s claim to that description.
In my personal Fantasy Land, the new Opinion Editor comes out with this on his first day:
My name is Bob, and I am the new Opinion Editor. The first thing I want to do is to apologize for all the lying, the smears, and the half-truths that WAPO has published over the last few decades. To be honest, our paper was “captured” by hardcore Democrat partisans, and we became part of the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. Nearly every position that we took, and every story that we wrote, was to further the Democrat Party, and the radical agenda of their leftmost members. We lied to you about President Trump, we lied to you about Russian Collusion, we lied to you about the J6 Insurrection, we lied to you about the Hunter Biden laptop, and we lied to you about gender-affirming care, we lied to you about the Ukraine-Russian war, we lied to you about COVID, we lied to you about Joe Biden’s mental condition, and in short, we lied to you about more things than we told the truth about. We became so utterly devoid of principles, that we even embraced the very idea that telling the objective truth was a bad thing.
Those days are over. We apologize to President Trump, to our readers, and to the American people.
There was another meltdown at the Washington Post after ….
It is obvious by now that Democrats have nothing to offer American in terms of intellectual thought, philosophical inquiry or reasoned dialogue. Like crystal meth addicts tweaking and raping young girls/boys at a sordid Democrat Jay-Z (aka Shawn Carter) and Democrat Sean “Diddy” Combs celebrity party, Democrats run on unrestrained urges and appetites. They personify all 7 deadly sins.
Bezos told the editors that he wanted the newspaper to advocate for individual liberties and the free market.
Take anything Bezos says with a grain of salt. His Amazon operations are unscrupulous to the Nth degree. His $500 Million luxury yacht is a scandal of epic proportions when he takes it to the Caribbean islands – quite the glaring “in your face” approach. And then there is the never ending marriage engagement with his fiancée plastic barbie doll – nothing authentic about that hot mess
We need to have reliable, authentic, fact-based, bias free news sources. It takes an inordinate amount of time to filter the various news sources to connect the dots and paint a credible news story that may or may not be true. Then there is the constant feeding of MSM “news alerts” so as to provoke web traffic and subsequently drive their sales revenues. They see Americans as rats in an MSM Skinner Box, constantly applying a shock to get the rats to depress the level that releases a biscuit chow.
On that note, Wuhan researchers are at it again with an ominous bat experiments. The 2020 global response to COVID was an unmitigated disaster with catastrophic consequences still reverberating. While the Democrat meth addicts act apoplectic because Republicans are cutting the Federal budget and eliminate wasteful spending, these self-loathing Leftists never shed a tear for the millions of Americans who lost their businesses, their jobs, their financial savings and the development delays of their children because of Biden’s COVID policies. If it is true that Wuhan virologists are back at it with manipulating viruses in bats, we should all take note since we can not rely on the Leftists rags that kissed the feet of a neurocognitively impaired US President, all “for the party”. Survival of the fittest applies.
Wuhan Covid lab planning ‘ominous’ new bat experiments
‘Ominous experiments’
Dr Alina Chan, a biosecurity expert and co-author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19, said: “The paper ends on an ominous note – describing a set of future experiments similar to what might’ve led to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“They’re going to test more of such viruses with different-looking spike proteins. They’re going to study cleavage sites and how they activate the spike in these viruses.
“They’re going to study the viruses’ ability to cause disease in humanised mice.”
She added: “After what we experienced with Covid-19, I believe there is no biosafety level adequate for such experiments in the city of Wuhan. If such work has to be done, it should be done at a biosafety level 4 far away from any city centre.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/26/wuhan-covid-lab-planning-ominous-new-bat-experiments/
Estovir,
Well said.
As for the continued experiments in Wuhan, it is beginning to read like a bad script to The Andromeda Strain.
thanks for your note yesterday re: PT. I should be mostly mobile in 3 weeks which will give me the freedom I need to do the things I enjoy with some limitations. It will be 3 months before Im allowed to engage gym training for upper body.
For now Im called to be patient, heal and not do anything stupid as to physical movements. Im in the phase where I am at risk of pulling the tissues from the implants and hardware, as other patients have done. I really dont want to have a repeat surgery.
forward and onward
“His Amazon operations are unscrupulous to the Nth degree.”
His operations are a logistics masterpiece. Amazon provides a service that allows countless small businesses to make money. His self-publishing division makes it possible for countless authors to support themselves.
“His $500 Million luxury yacht . . .”
Isn’t envy one of those seven deadly sins?
Took a bit of time for the change of heart, best wait and see. Wondering if the coming release of the Epstein papers has given some a change of heart?
Dear Prof Turley,
Better late than never, I guess. In the recent past, individual freedom and free-market mechanics have been little more than dark clouds floating across WaPo’s clear Sky-Blue hive mind.
And we’re persona non grata.
*Find me one WaPo article *critical* of U.S. involvement in Ukraine over the past three years e.g. .. . and then let’s talk about freedom and the free marketplace.
I suppose it’s nice, but I can’t see any reason why they couldn’t have changed course at any time, or simply not gone down that road in the first place. The damage the MSM has done is very real and quantifiable, and we can’t afford to let our memories be so short or it’ll all happen again if the scales tip.
Too little, too late, and no, thank you. Musk was the only one that acted when it mattered, and he has been castigated for it; the likes of Bezos or Zuckerburg? Meh. Where was that courage at the zero hour? For many of us, there will simply be no walking it back.
I put my info in – don’t know why this came up ‘Anonymous’ – James
James: This is one of your best and thank you.
-And I agree with the danger of “short memory” syndrome.
IMO, Bezos always has been about shaping the news to fit his agenda….
Even the liberal publication Axios notes “how much Bezos is willing to assert his power to shape public opinion as the owner of one of the country’s largest newspapers…” https://www.axios.com/2025/02/26/washingon-post-jeff-bezo-opnion-editor-resign
Key words: “…to shape public opinion.”
I find it profoundly naive to think that Bezos (who insists that he will send “opposing viewpoints” elsewhere) will not engage in subliminal selection of future editorials that, at first blush, appear to present an “opposing viewpoint” to left-wing journalistic advocacy, —but in reality are benign, harmless, and fall far short of a strong “opposing” viewpoint to counter the likes of Phillip Bump or Max Boot.
Jeff Bezos is as genuine as the chest on his new girl, Lauren Sanchez (please compare her chest to the hypotrophic adiposity of her arm in the photo.)
https://www.thelist.com/img/gallery/strange-things-about-lauren-snchez-jeff-bezos-relationship/jeff-bezos-reportedly-sent-some-strange-messages-to-her-while-he-was-married-1736947952.webp
@lin
Very much agreed. I don’t have any sympathy for those blowing with the direction of the wind, as Bezos and Zuckerburg are. Talk about oligarchs. I find it all naive, too, and I truly believe that our modern left will sing sweetly until they are in power again and then resume stomping on our faces. This has been pretty dang clear the past number of election cycles.
The proof is in the pudding: the Professor, who I consider to be a great voice in 2025, is still so enculturated to think that our dems are forever the bastions of freedom and that somehow the past five years were an honest mistake, not *really* representative of anything, that he can’t read between the lines. There are a lot like him, though they also happen to be in his position. He is actually unique in that he sees his students year after year, is willing to hold the line, as opposed to those for whom, in their insulated spaces, it is all a hypothetical exercise. These are the same folks that were magically ‘not impacted’ by the covid madness. Of course they weren’t: they were wealthy and insulated, and bless him, so is the Professor. It’s just a fact. Life is not perfect, and it does not diminish my respect for him standing up. He has been there and stood up the entire time.
Bezos? Ha, ha! Not so much.
James,
Using my own sister as an example, they, being moderate, traditional Democrats, have no where else to go. They will not join the Republican party. They still remain loyal to the traditional Democrat ideals and agenda. They cannot seem to either acknowledge or are willing to confront that the extreme far leftists wing of their own party have hijacked the Democrat leadership and the Democrats in Congress also reflecting the far leftist ideology, are hurting their party. Long time Democrats have call this aspect of their party as “toxic.” They need to give the extreme far leftists wing the boot. Until then, they will not do well in elections as they become more and more disillusioned with their own party and will leave or just not vote at all.
As I wrote in yesterday’s comments, Bezos has a considerable investment in WP, and no doubt wants to avoid it going down the porcelain pipe. He has every right to make changes to turn the WP business around, but it annoys me that he thinks he can put lipstick on that pig and claim motivation by morality.
After reading about his change of heart at WAPO, I remembered the woodward/bernstein heroic attempt to “get to the bottom” of Nixon and his guys and they were given all the support of the WAPO to bring down that republican president.
What I also noticed was that no such pair of reporters emerged to dig deep into hunter and his daddy and the more easily found more lethal corruption but they were not so inclined to do so against a fellow democrat (for whatever reason – we all have our theories about the rot at WAPO).
@whimsicalmama
No doubt. it’s something that cracks me up (no pun intended) when people whine about Elon being unelected; Hunter was privy to a great deal more in terms of the classified, without clearance, than Elon could ever hope to be. These people (the real oligarchs) are terrified of the actual ‘people’ having any voice or say whatsoever. It is Robespierre 2.0 (the peasants could not possibly appreciate real cooking!). They are terrified their grift is over and their malfeasance will be exposed, and though there are bad apples on the right to be sure, it is almost exclusively the left (globally, in fact. don’t think it’s all connected?) that is shrieking. I wonder why.
James,
Well said! Shrieking indeed!! I read where the Democrats want to introduce legislation to “bring transparency and accountability” to the Department of Government Efficiency. What have they been doing since day one? The idea of Democrats at this point wanting to “bring transparency and accountability” to anything is laughable. DOGE has shown us of the fraud, waste and abuse that was going on in USAID, which mostly benefited the Democrat agenda. Democrats do not seem to be able to read the room, String of polls highlights disconnect between media and public on DOGE, Trump’s first month
“A look at the polling from legacy outlets and upstarts alike seems to show the public more supportive of Musk’s effort and Trump’s policies, than a cursory view of the latest headlines would lead one to believe.”
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/thustring-polls-highlight-media-public-disconnect-doge-trumps-first-month
Sometimes I would like to be more like a Democrat. I could wish that the Washington Post would fail just like the left wishes that Elon Musk would fail. Instead my strongest emotion has been one of sadness after seeing a once great newspaper become a bastion of discrimination against those holding a different opinion. Maybe I’m naive but I believe that just like what happened to Paul on the road to Damascus the blindness suffered by Mr. Bezos has been lifted. I rejoice that his sight has regained its acuity and he is putting an end to one branch the propaganda machine of the left. Oh the wailing and gnashing of teeth can be heard around the world emanation from the bowels of a Washington bureaucracy composed of socialist versus capitalist on a scale of nine to one. This is a rightfully a day of great celebration. I’m going to Amazon to buy something even if I don’t need it. Bravo Mr. Bezos. Bravo.
The LA Times is moving in the same direction with Dr. Pat at the helm.
Nothing to be upset about, Bezos is just applying the time-honored principles of DIE to the editorial department. Since there are only so many editorial jobs, more than half the liberals will need to be fired to make room for conservatives and a token libertarian or two in order that the staff reflect the our society.
Meanwhile it looks like the Biden machine hired a few too many LGBTQF employees over at the NSA. The F is for furry. I suspect the L is for Lubertarian. The remaining letters are left as an exercise for the reader.
Bezos and others like him are reading the writing on the wall. The majority of American’s to include sane and normal moderate, traditional Democrats are fed up with this leftist wokeism insanity. I am very interested in seeing how this plays out.
Hmm. Totally free markets just allow the unscrupulous and power-hungry to take advantage of everyone else.
The unscrupulous and power hungry will take advantage of the less adaptive no matter the political or economic system they are in.
Of course they will try–they are unscrupulous and power-hungry.
That does not mean guardrails should be removed, just because they’ll likely try to find a spot to exploit or manipulate to their advantage.
Prairie Rose-I assume that you are talking about the Democratic Party. Since we see so much that has been uncovered in the Federal Government over the past few weeks. And have had to suffer under the boot of the FBI and it’s free lancing attacks on conservatives, “radical Catholics” and protestors against school board that let rapists into womens bathrooms and on and on. Or a 1st. Circuit Court of Appeals Decision that basically eviscerates parental rights and the ability to guide the safety and education of our children. The free market is a veritable paragon of ethics compared to the Progressives and Democrats that tried to topple our Federal Republic.
Maybe you need as radical a reset as the Post
Both parties are corrupt. Corporatist to the core.
They just lob a distraction back and forth, playing one against the other to keep the game going for their benefit.
Totally free market capitalism will put us in a Dickens-esque hellhole.
Both parties are corrupt but in today’s world the Republicans play the part of a Saint compared to the Democrats dealings with the devil.
Why don’t you suggest the guard rails you wish to place on the free market while you consider Bastiat’s the Seen and the Unseen.
#74. It could very well be the conservatives manipulated the democrats to behave so poorly to manipulate conservatives into the new normative of – I just can’t take it anymore . It gives the illusion of individual liberty and assures a demand.
They’re very bright.
Like the Biden family getting millions from China.
Totally free markets just allow the unscrupulous and power-hungry to take advantage of everyone else.
You may not believe it but there are world leaders and citizens in both first world/developed nations and third world / developing nations who see people like you as taking advantage of them. To them you are an American and that’s enough for them to condemn you
Estovir,
“You may not believe it but there are world leaders and citizens in both first world/developed nations and third world / developing nations who see people like you as taking advantage of them. To them you are an American and that’s enough for them to condemn you”
Agreed. Which is why I try to be careful with my purchases and oppose much of how our military is getting used.
What you say reinforces my point. Best to not let the unscrupulous and money/power-hungry run rough shod over everyone via totally free market capitalism.
The word unscrupulous is subjective as is money-hungry. Can you describe what you are looking for without using subjective words?
Even the ancient romans understood the rationale of “Caveat emptor” as the basis of all human activities. Heck, even apes and dogs sniff their food before eating and if you are not good at maneuvering through this world unassisted, you were the ones left by the side of the wagon trail because you just didn’t have what it took.
And I must add, that the old, infirmed and mentally handicapped should receive all of our empathy and help – but not through government fiat but through our own generosity via private charities.
As for the unscrupulous and power-hungry, they have been with us for ever and are, most probably, the ones who brought us down from the trees and led us to conquer the world. To just call the aggressive nature of humans evil is to make a grand error in historical understanding – but, then, again, I would find someone taking your viewpoint to already have fallen under the indoctrination spell of our media/education industry run by the infamous prog/left.
Newspapers advocating for individual liberties and the free market. Novel ideas really can be resurrected again.
No they can’t. This all about the Benjamins. More deceit.
So for 8 years Bezo let the WP run rough shod over Trump and the American people, lie upon lie, and now…
Jeff Bezos is a very intelligent businessman and, as such, understands that economic success in the business world requires keeping your customers happy and informed. With the country split down the middle in its politics, the safe haven for Bezos (and others who wish to survive) is to remain neutral and to praise America and its freedoms. It is a smart business strategy and may get the Washington Post out of the dark where it was dying. Praise the failures on their way out the door, and do nothing to hinder their exit.
Consider Amazon.com, a very successful business venture that has put many of shopping malls out of existence and helped the public shop quickly while being well-informed and, best of all, being able to return merchandise free and without hassle for Prime members. The Amazon delivery service is as good as the USPS and even beats FedEx on timeliness. Trump would do well to appoint Bezos Postmaster General but I think Trump has other plans for the USPS.
By nature, good businessmen and businesswomen are apolitical. Their only attachment is to the green. Step out of line to use your company to “make a statement,” and you get Bud-lited immediately. Bezos understands this and knows that half of his Amazon customers hold beliefs that are antithetical to those of the Washington Post. Whether he likes it or not, he knows that keeping the Washington Post in business and maintaining its readership depend on the same formula he used for Amazon.com: stay out of politics and give the customers good service and good information. It’s a simple but essential business principle and he is not alone in understanding it.
“very intelligent businessman…” Well, prove it. Saying, don’t make it true.
Anonymous 8:49
I think Jeff Bezos has already done that in the business world with his incredible success at Amazon. I would say that it would make more sense for you to prove he was not a success. And he did out in the public view, while you hide behind an anonymous title.
Time will tell if the Wash Post returns to profitability.
Good lord what hokum.
Amazon sells stuff from china. Who will end up paying those tariffs but the consumer. Jeff knows what side of his bread is buttered.
JDEbraG, it depends on the market elasticities as to who winds up paying the most. Long-term, market supply tends to be highly elastic.
She asked a specific question – who. You: Market elasticity, is not a consumer, its a unproven theory. Economics is an art, not a science. So, you don’t know. Just say so.
I didn’t say I knew, I just suggested she didn’t know. BTW, just about everything you said is mistaken, but whatever.
JDebra: Good point! But keep in mind that China is very dependent upon the US market for its own survival. It is not the retailer who sets the price of goods but the customers who choose to buy or not buy the goods. If left with inventories of unsold goods, retailers must lower the prices or go out of business. Higher prices, tariff-affected, also will incentivize domestic makers of goods that will not have tarriffs and can be sold competitively and cheaper. Tariffs can operationalize the competitive advantage that our large and wealthy consumer market gives us and those we trade with.
JJC,
Apple is investing some $500 billion in manufacturing here in America. Eli Lilly is also investing a large amount of money to build three drug manufacturing plants here in America.
Yes, Upstate, these are early returns from Trump’s tariff talk. We can expect to see more next week and beyond as tariffs begin to take effect. The Eli Lilly situation is fascinating. The majority of our legacy drugs like antibiotics and generic drugs used to treat heart disease and cancer are made in China and/or India. Until recently and the establishment of a new plant, the U.S. no longer manufactured acetaminophen (Tylenol®), one of the most popular and frequently used OTC medications. Since the US government is the largest payer of prescription medicines, if the foreign drugs had tariffs placed on them, the government would pay the increased prices. It would be, in a sense, a rebate of the tariff. However, it also would reduce the market share of the higher-priced tariffed drugs paid for by individuals and private health plans. Rather than expose a company’s bottom line to these unpredictable economic fluctuations, Lilly has decided it’s time to come home. Now, let’s see if the rest of big pharma follows suit.
jjc-Well said. Supply and Demand. Seems I have heard that concept before but a lot of people forget that simple concept. Nice to see it well stated here.
You heard? You have no idea.
Anonymous 9:48AM
You have no mind, just a keyboard, hate and envy.
“its own”? A double possessive? Never heard that one before.
Trump’s tariff strategy has measurable goals beyond simply what the cost of goods will be. There’s a reason he spoke (perhaps sarcastically) about creating the External Revenue Service. If the net affect of increased revenue from foreign sources reduces the taxes paid domestically, US consumers would offset potential price increases by an increase in household income. Of course the goal of ending the scourge of fentanyl and illegal aliens crossing our borders would be a huge benefit to our national security. That is priceless.
OLLY,
“the goal of ending the scourge of fentanyl and illegal aliens crossing our borders would be a huge benefit to our national security. That is priceless.”
Well said. I find it interesting I am NOW hearing of radio ads, read by actor Robert Dinero, about the fentanyl crisis. His grand son died of a fentanyl overdose. I feel for him and his family. But why now? Why not when it happened 2 July, 2023?
https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/09/entertainment/robert-de-niro-grandson-cause-of-death/index.html
“That should not mean that the newspaper will not run dissenting views on policies and programs… It also does not bar a diversity of opinion on the op-ed pages which still have a vast majority of liberal writers.”
versus
“We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.”
Bezos himself doesn’t seem to agree with your analysis.
Nice catch and comment.
LOL…that is funny.
I call for 5% TAX on the gross of ALL wall street trades or moving money offshore
Bezos has ZERO interest in free markets or speech…he is trying to NOT get crushed by WHAT IS COMING. PAYBACK
I suggest everyone listen to Luke Gromen interview with Tucker Carson…nominally about Gold but really about the money printing or as Luke put it, the USA is the Saudi Arabia of MONEY PRINTING! About how this MONEY printing has rewarded DC, Wall Street, etc at the expense of the other 350,000,000 Americans!
I guess Shipley and the others can go learn how to code. No, they’ll be canonized and catered to, at least for the short term
Great work Professor Turley. It seems the Democrats are not entirely monolithic. Some have common sense, though not many. Bezos must understand that if and when the Democrats are back in power, he will be an official pariah. However, Bezos is not risk averse. He has gambled on the future his entire career, and this revision is a big one. Good luck Jeff.
Crap!!! Where am I going to get my fake news now?
Calm down, Kid. Blue Sky will give you a free subscription (or maybe it won’t–you have to subscribe to find out), and if you like your subscription, you can keep your subscription! Blue Sky checks all the boxes: fake news, censorship, and you can even be canceled if you opine gratuitously. You get every feature of woke wackiness you’ve come to expect. What’s not to love?!?!