Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon who purchased The Washington Post in 2013, has broken his silence over the recent turmoil that has embroiled the prominent DC media outlet after the ascension of new publisher Will Lewis, who wants to make it more profitable to cover its $77 million hole.
“I know you’ve already heard this from Will, but I wanted to also weigh in directly: the journalistic standards and ethics at The Post will not change,” Bezos wrote in an email to leadership staff at The Post. However, he noted that it “can’t be business as usual.”
“The world is evolving rapidly and we do need to change as a business. With your support, we’ll do that and lead this great institution into the future,” Bezos continued. “But, as the newsroom leaders who’ve been shaping and guiding our coverage, you also know our standards at The Post have always been very high. That can’t change — and it won’t.”
“You have my full commitment on maintaining the quality, ethics, and standards we all believe in,”
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This comes after The Post’s own writers produced a 3,000 word article against one of Lewis’ incoming top editors, Robert Winnett, alleging that he had connections with a “thief” who used manipulative techniques to score dirt on others. The Post’s staff are reportedly in an uproar over this as well as Lewis’ handling of several internal affairs.
There was also a New York Times article over the weekend that claimed Lewis previously assigned a writer to work on a story using material from stolen phone records while he was working for Fox News, Wall Street Journal, and New York Post owner Rupert Murdoch in the United Kingdom.
Lewis initially responded to the hit jobs by attacking his own reporters and going on-the-record to criticize NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, calling him an “activist, not a journalist.”
Shane Devine is a writer covering politics and business for VT and a regular guest on The Unusual Suspects. Follow Shane’s work here.
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