Washington Put up affiliate editor and high political columnist Ruth Marcus is reportedly resigning following CEO Will Lewis’ choice to kill her opinion column crucial of proprietor Jeff Bezos’ newest adjustments to the paper.
“It’s with nice unhappiness that I submit my resignation as columnist and affiliate editor of the Washington Put up,” Marcus wrote in a letter addressed to writer Will Lewis and billionaire Jeff Bezos and posted on X by a New York Instances media reporter.
Final month, Bezos introduced adjustments to the opinion part that appeared to extra carefully align the Put up with the political proper, saying that solely columns that supported “private liberties and free markets” would henceforth be printed.
Greater than 75,000 digital readers of the Put up canceled their subscriptions within the 48 hours following Bezos revealing his intentions. David Shipley, the opinions editor, stepped down after failing to dissuade Bezos from implementing these new mandates.
Within the resignation electronic mail, Marcus says that she was honored to write down commentary that readers of the Put up may know would encompass her “finest impartial judgment”. The letter goes on to say: “Sadly, on the opinion aspect of the newspaper, that seems to be now not the case.”
“Jeff’s announcement that the opinion part will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of particular person liberties and free markets, threatens to interrupt the belief of readers that columnists are writing what they consider, not what the proprietor has deemed acceptable,” the letter continues.
Marcus goes on to clarify in her letter that the choice by Lewis to not run a column she wrote and describes as “respectfully dissenting” from Bezos’ new guidelines threatens the liberty of newspaper columnists in addition to the credibility they construct with their readers.
She mentioned the choice to kill the dissenting column is one thing she has “not skilled in virtually 20 years of column-writing”.
“I really like the Put up,” Marcus wrote on the finish of her resignation letter. “It breaks my coronary heart to conclude that I have to depart.”
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