The Washington Post on Wednesday announced sweeping layoffs that affected nearly every corner of the 150-year-old newsroom. The company, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, slashed one-third of its workforce and eliminated entire departments, including the paper’s sports desk.
Martin Baron, former executive editor of the Post, sat down with Jen Psaki on Wednesday’s “The Briefing” to discuss the layoffs and the state of free press under Donald Trump.
Baron reflected on when he first joined the Post in 2013. “It was a great news organization then,” he said, even as “it had faced many challenges.
“[Bezos] acquired the paper about a year after I had been there. He invested. He spoke on behalf of the mission of the Post. He spoke on behalf of the mission of the press in this country,” Baron said, adding that the paper “grew under the ownership” of Bezos.
However, Baron told MS NOW that Wednesday’s announcement “represents a turn back.”
“It suggests that this newspaper, with a deep heritage and historically high ambitions, is going to retreat,” he explained. “And it’s a terrible thing to see a news organization that’s been so important to the history of this country retreat the way that this newspaper is doing.”
As Baron noted, Bezos once championed the importance of a free press and defended the Post’s mission. When Psaki asked what had changed, the veteran journalist responded, “I explain it by saying the words ‘Donald Trump.’ That’s what happened.”
“Trump came into office again,” Baron said. “He had promised vengeance against his perceived political enemies. Jeff Bezos was seen as a political enemy by Donald Trump for one reason and one reason only, and that was the coverage of the Washington Post.”
Baron said that under his leadership, the paper had been “very aggressive” in its coverage of the president. “I think for good reason, because he was abusing his power as president,” Baron said. “So we sought out to document that, and we did document that, and that’s what a good news organization ought to do.”
When Trump returned to the White House, Baron said he believed Bezos was afraid the administration would target him and his other businesses for the Post’s journalism.
Baron said Bezos feared “reprisal” against not just Amazon, but also against what the former Washington Post chief described as the “object of his passion,” Blue Origin, the private space company that holds significant government contracts. “And so he has sought to navigate this administration during the second term,” he told Psaki.
One of the ways Bezos has acquiesced to Trump was his decision to overhaul the Post’s opinion section to focus on “personal liberties and free markets,” a move that, as Baron pointed out, drove away loyal subscribers and hurt both the company’s bottom line and its reputation.
“This is a newspaper that has prided itself on its independence, and the behavior of Jeff Bezos has suggested to the readers that he is not independent at all,” Baron said. “He’s actually dependent — dependent on Donald Trump.”
You can watch Baron’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW. She was previously a segment producer for “AYMAN” and “The Mehdi Hasan Show.”