Distressed columnist quits The Washington Post in a fury over Jeff Bezos’ friendship with Trump
A Washington Post columnist known for her anti-Trump screeds has quit her job at the newspaper after 14 years. She claims that owner Jeff Bezos has become too friendly with the president-elect.
Notoriously liberal columnist Jennifer Rubin joins a growing list of former colleagues who have fled the publication in recent months.
“I fear things are going from bad to worse at The Post,” Rubin said CNNcondemning billionaire Bezos for his leadership decisions.
“The Post, like most mainstream news outlets, has failed spectacularly at a time when we most need a robust, aggressive free press.”
She denounced Bezos’ decision to block The Post’s editorial staff from supporting Kamala Harris, a decision that cost the channel 250,000 subscribers.
The Post veteran was also outraged by Amazon — owned by Bezos — donating $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund.
The final straw for Rubin was the publisher’s refusal to publish a satirical cartoon by Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes.
The controversial drawing depicted Bezos, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and OpenAI chief Sam Altman kneeling with bags of cash in front of a large statue of Trump.
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin has resigned from her position at the newspaper after fourteen years
Rubin claimed that Jeff Bezos’ pro-Trump politics played a role in her decision to leave The Post
Amazon – owned by Jeff Bezos – donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund
Telnaes, who had worked at De Post since 2008, resigned after the incident.
The Post’s opinion editor David Shipley defended his decision to get rid of the cartoon in an internal memo, CNN reported.
He reportedly said it was a “good editorial decision” because other pieces had already referenced the relationship between Trump and Bezos and publishing more of this type of content seemed “overkill.”
Rubin teams up with former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen to create a news organization called The Contrarian.
“Our goal is to fight with every fiber of our being the authoritarian threat we face,” she told CNN.
Rubin will be the publication’s editor-in-chief and Eisen will be the publisher.
Several other prominent Post reporters have left the outlet over the endorsement debacle and other tensions.
Reporters Michael Scherer and Ashley Parker left The Post for the Atlantic. Editor-in-chief Matea Gold resigned and joined The New York Times.
Several other prominent Post reporters have left the outlet over the endorsement debacle and other tensions
The newspaper’s shocking decision not to support a presidential candidate in the election cost the newspaper more than 250,000 subscriptions
Rubin teams up with former White House ethics czar Norm Eisen to start a news organization called The Contrarian
The endorsement decision cost the outlet several of their well-known reporters to be poached by rival newspapers, such as Ashley Parker (pictured right) of The Atlantic and Editor-in-Chief Matea Gold (pictured left) of The New York Times
Opinion section writers David Hoffman, Molly Roberts and Robert Kagan also quit, along with White House correspondent Tyler Pager, who will rejoin The New York Times. Opinion editor Amanda Katz and her deputy Charles Lane also left.
Status revealed that star Trump reporter Josh Dawsey also parted ways with the publication and joined the Wall Street Journal.
Bezos responded to the endorsement controversy in an op-ed outlining his perspective.
In it he mentioned the growing ‘distrust’ towards the media.
“What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias,” he wrote at the time, after the Post had promoted a Democrat for decades.
‘A perception of non-independence. Ending it is a decision of principle, and it is the right decision.”
The Post was hit by mass layoffs last week.
Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes walked out after her bosses featured a cartoon showing Bezos and other billionaires bending the knee in front of a statue of Trump.
The Post’s new publisher and CEO, William Lewis, issued a statement to D.C. office employees in September detailing how dire the publication’s financial situation was while vowing to “turn things around.”
The parade of exits since the election includes star Trump reporter Josh Dawsey (left), who left for the Wall Street Journal, and White House correspondent Tyler Pager (right), who is rejoining The New York Times
Even before The Post lost 250,000 subscriptions, it was on track to lose $77 million.
In September 2024, The Post laid off a quarter of its workforce at ArcXP, its standalone software unit, months after implementing buyouts in an effort to avoid layoffs.
That month, the Post’s new publisher and CEO, William Lewis, issued a statement to employees at the Washington, D.C., office outlining how dire the publication’s financial situation was, while promising, “We will turn things around.’
He pointed out that the paper’s audience “has halved in recent years” and told his staff: “People don’t read your stuff.”