Ex-Washington Post staffer accuses Jeff Bezos of trying to 'survive' Trump rather than save paper
A former staffer of The Washington Post is taking aim at its owner Jeff Bezos, accusing him of prioritizing his survival in the era of Donald Trump rather than saving his paper.
In a piece published Tuesday titled "A Billionaire's Surrender," former Washington Post fact checker Glenn Kessler began by highlighting Bezos' net worth, noting that he was worth $25 billion in 2013 when he first bought the paper, and now he's worth "about $250 billion" as major layoffs are expected to rock the newsroom.
"Bezos is a businessman, and the Washington Post is not a charity, so I understand the inclination to demand that losses be stemmed. The newsroom should be able to stand on its own feet," Kessler wrote on his Substack. "But even if the losses are still around $100 million a year — the figure announced a couple of years ago — for a person of Bezos’ wealth, that would mean he’d have to close the place in… 2,500 years."
He continued, "I don’t think the layoffs have much to do with saving money. Amazon, after all, just spent $75 million buying and promoting a documentary about Melania Trump. It’s about power and influence in Donald Trump’s second term."
Kessler, who took a voluntary buyout last summer after being at the paper for 27 years, recalled being part of a small group of Post journalists who had lunch with Bezos following the 2016 election and how Bezos was asked whether he had any concerns about Trump seeking retribution as president.
"Bezos acknowledged that Trump would assume any negative story about him had been ordered up by Bezos, because that’s what Trump would do if he owned a newspaper. But he said that wasn’t our problem. We only had to write the best stories possible; he could handle the heat if Trump got mad," Kessler wrote. "Those were comforting words at the time. As far as I know, Bezos has never interfered with any news coverage during his 13 years as owner — even stories critical of Amazon or coverage of Bezos’s personal life, let alone politics. For many years, he didn’t even appear to get very involved with the editorial page, even though, as owner, he could dictate whatever opinion-page policy he wanted."
Despite Trump's vocal animosity towards the Post, Bezos "was unbowed," according to Kessler, pointing to its new slogan at the time "Democracy Dies in Darkness" and boosted the size of staff during Trump's first term in office.
"He appeared to embrace the idea, dare I say, that he was the steward of a public trust," Kessler told readers. "Presidential-level threats disappeared with Trump’s defeat in 2020, though Joe Biden was no fan of the tech industry. But when Trump ran again and the Democrats were on the ropes, Bezos’s calculation changed. He could afford Trump’s first term; a second could be ruinous, especially as Elon Musk, his main rival in the space business, embraced Trump."
"I used to think billionaires had enough 'f--- you' money to do what they pleased. But in Trump’s creeping autocracy, and with his campaign of retribution, billionaires have too much to lose," he added.
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Kessler went on to say Bezos "appeared to have grown less interested in The Post," pointing to how the paper's top rival The New York Times made savvy business decisions like acquiring The Athletic and Wordle while the billionaire "lavished attention on his new love, Lauren Sánchez, whom he married last year in Venice in a $50-million extravaganza."
"No longer engaged, Bezos appears to have embraced a crude calculus: laying off staff and trimming the sails of a once-great news organization sends a message to an audience of one at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, even if the decision ruins the lives of scores of talented reporters and editors," Kessler wrote before accusing Bezos of working hard "to ingratiate himself with Trump," citing Amazon's $1 million contribution to Trump's inauguration and Bezos' Mar-a-Lago visit.
Fox News Digital reached out to representatives for Bezos and The Washington Post for comment.
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The criticism comes as Washington Post staffers brace for a brutal round of layoffs, which could take place as soon as this week.
Reports indicate that hundreds of staffers could be let go as a result of the cuts and multiple sections could be gutted, including the sports and the foreign affairs teams.
Bezos took heat from employees in 2024 when he abruptly axed the paper's planned endorsement of Kamala Harris for the White House, after the editorial board had previously declared Trump the worst president in modern history.
The surprising decision shortly before the election sparked massive subscriber losses and a slew of staff resignations. Bezos later fueled more outrage when he announced he was overhauling its editorial pages to promote "free markets and personal liberties."