Washington Post editor Ruth Marcus has resigned following a contentious incident in which her column, criticizing the newspaper's new direction under owner Jeff Bezos, was pulled. The veteran opinion columnist’s piece, which "respectfully dissented" from Bezos’ changes to the outlet's editorial strategy, was scrapped before publication.
In her resignation letter, Marcus, who worked at the paper for over 40 years, accused CEO Will Lewis of pulling her column from the publication lineup for “expressing concern about the newly announced direction for the section.”
“Will’s decision not to run the column that I wrote respectfully dissenting from Jeff’s edict — something that I have not experienced in almost two decades of column-writing — underscores that the traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded,” Marcus wrote.
This comes after Bezos announced that the WaPo’s editorial section would take a new approach and focus on “personal liberties and free markets” instead of publishing criticism of the two. Marcus claimed that this threatens readers' trust in the accuracy of what they are reading.
“Jeff’s announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable,” her letter continued.
A spokesperson for the WaPo said that the paper respects Marcus’ decision to leave and wishes her the best.
As part of the overhaul, the national desk will be divided into two sections: one focused on national reporting and the other on politics and government. This shift will also incorporate most of the outlet's political journalists and the economics and economic policy team from the business section. Bezos revealed that the changes resulted in opinions editor David Shipley resigning.
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