Washington Put up’s turnaround on its opinion pages is returning journalism to its partisan roots − however with out the rules

Jeff Bezos, the world’s third-richest particular person and proprietor of The Washington Put up, introduced in February 2025 vital modifications to the editorial pages of his Pulitzer-Prize successful newspaper.

The editorial part, additionally known as the opinion part, is the place editors and contributors with a deep and broad understanding of the most recent information supply their evaluation of the day’s points. This content material is distinct from the fact-based information reporting of the outlet’s on a regular basis journalists.

Each sorts of content material serve the general public curiosity. Journalists report information to tell the general public, whereas editors and opinion writers analyze and clarify information, placing information into a bigger context to assist understanding.

On the Put up, as a substitute of reports editors making impartial selections on what to put in writing and the views they need to take, Bezos tweeted, “We’re going to be writing day-after-day in help and protection of two pillars: private liberties and free markets. We’ll cowl different subjects too after all, however viewpoints opposing these pillars will likely be left to be revealed by others.”

Opinion and evaluation within the Put up was thus going to restrict itself to at least one specific viewpoint.

As a journalism historian, I analyze how journalism has modified over time. Over time, the aim, practices and types of journalism have advanced.

Bezos’ choice harks again to an earlier time when editors and house owners have been the identical particular person, and newspapers supplied a selected interpretation of the world, not only a impartial report.

Knowledgeable opinions and evaluation

Whereas editorial writers and opinion columnists supply their opinions, these views are nonetheless anticipated to be grounded in journalistic rules, constructing from verifiable information and comprehensively contemplating context to supply well-reasoned evaluation.

Lots of at this time’s information editors and journalists stake their skilled reputations on their obligation to fact, impartial of particular pursuits or specific ideologies. They satisfaction themselves on reporting and explaining the information with out concern or favor.

After Bezos’ announcement, editorial web page editor and veteran journalist David Shipley resigned from his place. Shipley advised his workers he was stepping down “after reflection on how I can greatest transfer ahead within the occupation that I like.”

Journalists and media critics from throughout the political spectrum learn Bezos’ editorial coverage change as going in opposition to the custom of a paper that lengthy prided itself on editorial independence within the identify of public service. Traditionally, the newspaper’s opinion part supplied a spread of views on quite a lot of points.

Limiting the newspaper’s opinion part to a single viewpoint, critics argue, doesn’t appear to align with the Put up’s slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” because it stifles public dialogue and purposefully turns off a number of the lights.

Former Washington Put up editor Marty Baron advised the Guardian, “Should you’re attempting to advance the reason for democracy, then you definately enable for public debate, which is what democracy is all about.”

Placing all of this in historic context may help illuminate Bezos’ choice in addition to the present state of American media.

Opinionated early American journalism

On the nation’s founding, the very first newspapers have been extremely partisan, supporting and receiving a lot of their funding from specific political events and authorities subsidies. Newspapers have been small operations the place editors, house owners, writers and typesetters have been often all the identical particular person.

Because the nation and its political course have been simply forming, these editor-owners felt a public obligation and obligation to stake out a transparent political place. There have been no requirements of journalistic neutrality; editor-owners framed information stories, wrote columns and revealed different individuals’s opinions based mostly on their very own specific viewpoints.

Editors wrote passionately, utilizing language that prompt the destiny of the nation was at stake. They have been additionally principled and keen to criticize their very own events in the event that they thought it warranted. And since they have been clear about their views, readers responded by gravitating to their most well-liked newspapers. Consequently, the variety of newspapers within the U.S. elevated from 35 in 1783 to 1,200 by 1833. Historians have thus argued that the early United States was a “nation of newspaper readers.”

In contrast to fashionable notions of journalistic impartiality, if a newspaper didn’t help a political social gathering or remained impartial, it was dismissed by readers as both missing morals or being too silly to type an opinion.

As newspapers of the early republic developed from reporting recycled information from different sources to guiding public dialogue, the editorial thus emerged as a brief opinion essay separate from stories on native speeches or overseas information.

Reality-based journalism and knowledgeable evaluation

For numerous causes, the partisan press gave approach to a journalism that tried wider attraction. By 1900, many information shops aimed for impartiality and neutrality.

By the Twenties, most journalists embraced the beliefs of objectivity, the notion that journalists ought to solely report information.

Curiously, this led to a development in editorials, opinion columns and information evaluation.

Opinion columns written by journalists supplied interpretive frameworks for readers to grasp the that means of reports occasions. One such journalist-commentator was Walter Lippmann (1889-1974), a political analyst who wrote various influential columns, together with a bit infamously considered as a catalyst for Japanese internment throughout World Warfare II.

Such content material supplied journalists a method to point out their independence from the highly effective. Journalists might commit themselves to fact and verifiable information whereas nonetheless asserting their impartial position to contextualize information, clarify its implications and information the conversations needed for democracy.

Analysis has proven that such opinion-based information content material can affect what residents and media shops prioritize as necessary, in addition to how policymakers method sure points.

At the moment, particularly with the rise in partisan tv, radio and web shops, there isn’t any scarcity of opinion-based information and evaluation.

So long as individuals keep empathetic and open to others with totally different experiences, that is not inherently dangerous for democracy. Issues come up, nonetheless, when opinionated information outweighs fact-based reporting and other people start to distrust all reporting they don’t agree with, a psychological phenomenon generally known as affirmation bias.

In at this time’s digital world, everybody can broadcast or publish their opinion, whereas fact-based reporting takes time and sources. Whereas information evaluation and considerate opinion can generate necessary social conversations and assist residents perceive information, an excessive amount of opinion that isn’t grounded in information also can result in a normal ambiance of distrust and suspicion. This spells hassle for the good-faith understanding, open dialogue and mutual belief so important to democracy.

Cashing in on polarization

Polling knowledge suggests People are extra divided than ever.

Maybe Washington Put up proprietor Bezos is just responding to the general public’s documented desire for partisanship over fact or to the profitability of partisan information.

However as a matter of context, there’s a distinction between the principled partisans of the early republic, the skilled analysts of the twentieth century, and an proprietor who calls for his media outlet’s opinions must be restricted to his preferences.

When he bought The Washington Put up in 2013, Bezos mentioned the newspaper wouldn’t change and that “the paper’s obligation will stay to its reader and to not the non-public pursuits of its house owners.”

On this newest transfer, he has signaled that his non-public curiosity is a precedence, a minimum of for the editorial part. This limits the views the Put up-reading public can encounter and restricts the free market of concepts. So when a Put up journalist of 40 years wrote a column opposing Bezos’ editorial choice, her bosses refused to publish it.

Apparently, mild criticism was not a “private liberty” afforded a longtime worker. Along with her beloved employer not even keen to debate the column – dialogue being the cornerstone of deliberative democracy – the veteran journalist resigned.

Within the present media setting, organizations and individuals who don’t take part in information manufacturing or share its values should buy journalistic shops and alter their requirements and practices. Because of this, principled journalists could determine to go away quite than compromise their mission of public service.

Finally, Bezos is being clear. It’s thus as much as the American individuals to determine on the type of journalism and pursuit of fact they need. It’s price noting that tens of 1000’s of canceled subscriptions have already begun to make that call clear.