Color me skeptical, but if Jeff Bezos really is dedicated to ensuring that the opinion pages of his paper are promoting “personal liberties” and the free market then we should be looking at a 180-degree shift from the Washington Post‘s kneejerk support of any and all gun control efforts.
In case you missed it, here’s Bezos’ announcement on X earlier today.
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…
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) February 26, 2025
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.
In terms of major publications offering support for the personal liberty to keep and bear arms, Bezos is absolutely right about that viewpoint being underserved. There are a few syndicated columnists who might appear in the pages of the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and other major print outlets, and I know that my buddy and WaPo columnist Jim Geraghty is a backer of the Second Amendment, but I can’t really think of any big daily paper whose editorial board are staunch defenders of our 2A rights.
The big question, of course, is whether Bezos’ desire to promote personal liberty actually will extend to the right to keep and bear arms. In 2015 Amazon donated $30,000 to a Seattle gun “buyback” event, but the company refused to drop NRA TV from its streaming service in 2018, despite a major push by anti-gun activists and several celebrities. I was actually blocked by Jim Gaffigan on what was then Twitter after I responded to his tweet calling on Amazon and other services to #DumpNRATV and told him how sad it was that someone who makes a living talking into a microphone was trying to silence others’ voices.
Time will tell if Bezos’ move to remake the WaPo opinion pages will include newfound support for the Second Amendment. I’m an optimist at heart so I’m hoping for the best, but I’ll have to see those changes before I start celebrating.
Read the full article here
