In a blistering op-ed, President Donald Trump was slammed as “the true risk” to “private liberties and free markets” by a Washington Put up columnist after the paper’s proprietor, Jeff Bezos, mentioned the publication would reject any content material that opposes these two rules in its opinion part.
“If we as a newspaper, and we as a rustic, are to defend his twin pillars, then we should redouble our battle in opposition to the one biggest risk to ‘private liberties and free markets’ in the USA at present: President Donald Trump,” wrote Dana Milbank in an op-ed published Friday. “The quickly spreading authoritarianism coming from this administration threatens all of our freedoms.”
Milbank elaborated by dissecting Trump’s commerce wars, his challenges to authorized immigration, his politicizing of legislation enforcement and the navy, and his cherry-picking of which media retailers obtain White Home entry as just a few examples of the president’s violation of Bezos’ protected “pillars.”
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“The results of Trump’s intolerant actions can already be seen. Inflation has accelerated. Jobless claims jumped greater than anticipated. Shopper confidence has slid. The inventory market has been unstable. Trump’s approval numbers have inched downward,” wrote Milbank.
Bezos, in saying his overhaul of The Put up’s opinion part in a letter to the paper’s workers, argued that the themes of non-public liberties and free markets “are underserved within the present market of concepts and information opinion” and {that a} “broad-based opinion part” is not wanted since diversifying viewpoints could be discovered elsewhere on the internet.
His directive led The Put up’s opinion editor, David Shipley, to resign.
Bezos and Trump reportedly had dinner together mere hours after Bezos introduced the adjustments at The Put up.
Since buying the paper in 2013, the billionaire Trump donor and Amazon founder has drummed up controversy over his editorial selections. Final October, Bezos ended The Put up’s custom of endorsing presidential candidates, and final month, opinion cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned after one among her cartoons vital of Bezos was killed.
Journalist Gene Weingarten, who spent twenty years as a Put up columnist, mentioned in a Substack post Thursday that he’s heard of not less than one Put up author having their work rejected within the wake of Bezo’s announcement this week.
Put up media critic Erik Wemple had advised colleagues that he would write about Bezos’ order, which Weingarten mentioned is a part of his job. However in keeping with some Put up staffers, Wemple’s completed column was rejected for publication, Weingarten wrote.
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“It was described to me by somebody who noticed it as ‘extra mystified and saddened than outraged or appalled,’” Weingarten wrote of Wemple’s submitted work. “I’ve been advised one other revered opinions columnist has additionally submitted a chunk on the identical topic. Let’s watch and see what occurs.”
