'Craven. He's Fearful of Trump': Marty Baron Slams Jeff Bezos' Censorship of Post Opinion Section
EXCLUSIVE: The acclaimed ex-Washington Post editor on billionaire media barons and growing threats to the free press.
During the first Donald Trump presidency, Martin Baron may have been America’s most important journalist. As executive editor, he led the Washington Post as its dogged team of reporters held the president to account for everything from Trump’s dubious claims of charitable donations to Russia’s interference in the 2016 elections on his behalf.
The paper that exposed the Watergate scandal that brought down President Richard Nixon described its 21st-century mission with the catchphrase, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” Baron’s leadership enjoyed the backing of Post owner Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and one of the world’s richest men.
Things are different now. Baron, who led newsrooms to more than a dozen Pulitzer Prizes, retired in early 2021. Trump’s agenda has grown more frenetic and extreme. Bezos has joined other corporate titans seeking the president’s favor, provoking an exodus of Post reporters who fear the newspaper will no longer support unflinching coverage.
I talked with Baron about the altered political landscape of 2025, and how journalists should navigate it. Baron also railed against his former boss for Bezos’ decision to refocus the Post’s opinions section on defending “personal liberties and free markets.” Here’s more from our conversation, edited for clarity and brevity:
The shifting political environment has affected the behavior of the top levels of American media, by which I mean ownership. Jeff Bezos, your old boss, announced today the paper’s opinion section will focus on “personal liberties and free markets” and “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” What do you make of that?
BARON: It’s craven. He’s basically fearful of Trump. He has decided that, as timid and tepid as the editorials have been, they’ve been too tough on Trump.
He’s saying they’re going to have an opinion page with one point of view. That’s an invitation to the editorial writers and the columnists to take a hike. That’s really extraordinary (considering) everything he has said in the past. It’s a Post that’s not going to be for all of America. At a time when we’re talking about freedom and democracy, he saying there will not be freedom and liberty on our own pages.
Does this signal that he’s going to be interfering with the news pages, too?
BARON: I hope not. I haven’t seen any evidence he’s interfering with the news pages. If there’s even a hint of that, the Post will lose everything - all its credibility. But look, Trump’s going to get pissed off over the news pages. We’re at a point where we’re not having a difference of opinions, we’re have a difference about what the facts are.
Why do you think he did this?