5 yrs ago the #WashingtonPost editorial board wrote "Democracy is at risk, at home and around the world. The nation desperately needs a president who will respect its public servants; stand up for the rule of law; acknowledge Congress’s constitutional role; and work for the public good, not his private benefit.”

#Billionaire baron buyer of that iconic #Potomac paper #JeffBezos has since put his thumb on the #editorial scale.

The once disagreeing voices needed in the editorial opinion pages are muffled and only bending truth to please the owner and his new pals at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave in DC. Bezos has since announced he is paying over $40 million for exclusive rights to a documentary about the first lady produced by the first lady herself and directed by a Hollywood cretin who was last seen being chased out of town under a cloud of rape accusations.

This ain't Katherine Graham's #WaPo, Woodward & Bernstein definitely don't work there anymore ... #Writers aren't telling truth or shedding light in darkness, but bending viewpoints towards vaguely defined support of the owner's interest in "personal liberties and free markets" ... and I , along with millions of others have canceled a long time #subscription.

#RuthMarcus tells of her final daze writing under Bezos editorial control, beginning with the passage...

"The values of the Post do not need changing,” Jeff Bezos told #employees when he bought the newspaper a dozen years ago. He echoed the words of the Post’s #owner Eugene Meyer in 1935, emphasizing, “The paper’s duty will remain to its readers and not to the private interests of its owners.”

...and ultimately reveals the rest of column that paper refused ... revealing "the unavoidable truth: the Washington Post I joined, the one I came to love, is not the Washington Post I left."

https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/why-ruth-marcus-left-the-washington-post

[The New Yorker]: Why I Left the Washington Post.

Owner Jeff Bezos wants to transform the Opinions section of the paper, where I worked for forty years. After the publisher killed my column disagreeing with that move—it appears here in full—I decided to quit. By Ruth Marcus, Wednesday, March 12, 2025

https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay/why-ruth-marcus-left-the-washington-post

As Parker Molloy reports, highly regarded Washingon Post columnist Ruth Marcus resigned today, stating,

"With immense sadness I am writing to let you know that I have resigned from The Washington Post, in an email sent this morning to Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis and pasted below."

#WashingtonPost #RuthMarcus #FreeSpeech #media #JeffBezos #billionaires #EconomicElites #Trump #authoritarianism
/1

https://www.readtpa.com/p/another-dark-day-at-the-bezos-post

Columnist Ruth Marcus has quit the Washington Post, saying publisher Will Lewis killed an op-ed critical of Jeff Bezos' edict about the paper's opinion section. Lewis' decision "underscores that the traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded," Marcus said. Here's more from @npr.

https://flip.it/DIsxm1

#GiftArticle

A dangerous, damaging civil war at the #Justice Department

- #RuthMarcus

“What’s going on is nothing short of a civil war inside the Justice Department, a battle over whether its lawyers are going to serve as the obedient shock troops for President Donald #Trump or as custodians of the rule of #law, with simultaneous duties to defer to policy determinations of the incumbent administration & to respect professional standards.”

#law #DOJ #ethics #Judiciary
https://wapo.st/4hZcbbW

TY #ruthmarcus "And speaking of Trump’s rhetoric, Merchan had some choice words on that, again worth heeding and valuable to have on the record. Trump, contending that his 'contributions to this City and the Nation are too numerous to count,' asserted that his public service and character should weigh as important factors in dismissing the charges.
Merchan wasn’t buying — and he turned Trump’s claims of exemplary character on their head.

"'Defendant has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole,' he wrote.

“'In the case at bar, despite repeated admonitions, this Court was left with no choice but to find the Defendant guilty of 10 counts of Contempt.'

"His conclusion?

"'Defendant’s character and history vis-a-vis the Rule of Law and the Third Branch of government must be analyzed under this factor in direct relation to the result he seeks, and in that vein, it does not weigh in his favor.'”

excellent, concise piece that not only explains the seriousness of the #election interference case (aka the hush money case, which is more salacious-sounding and therefore used more often) but the incorrect arguments, offered by some #lawyers and #media (this coverage contributed to my dropping the #WashingtonPost, I believe it was a #RuthMarcus piece poo-pooing the case) about the seriousness of the case (buttressed of course by calling it the hush money case).

https://popular.info/p/people-v-trump

Ruth Marcus: there is no such thing as “too many indictments.” One indicts to charge the crimes committed. WTF?!?