A Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist has become the latest to leave The Washington Post amid Jeff Bezos’ overhaul of the opinion section.
Eugene Robinson, 71, announced on Thursday that he is quitting the storied newspaper over the Amazon founder’s plan to have the Opinion page focusing only on support for ‘personal liberties and free markets’.
He said in an email to his colleagues that the reimagining of the page ‘spurred my decision that it’s time for my next chapter,’ according to the New York Times.
‘I wish nothing but the very best for the paper and for all of you,’ Robinson wrote.
‘I won’t be a stranger and I’ll be reading your unparalleled work every day,’ he vowed.
In a statement, a spokesperson for The Washington Post categorized Robinson’s abrupt departure as a ‘retirement,’ The Wrap reports.
‘For 45 years, his reporting and commentary spanned continents and beats, earning countless recognitions, including a Pulitzer Prize,’ the spokesperson said.
‘Eugene’s strong perspective and impeccable integrity have regularly shaped our public discourse, cementing his legacy as a leading voice in American journalism.’
Eugene Robinson, 71, announced on Thursday that he is resigning from The Washington Post
He cited Jeff Bezos’ plan to have the Opinion page focusing only on support for ‘personal liberties and free markets’ as his impetus to leave
Robinson has since confirmed to Fox News that he is only retiring from The Post, and not from journalism in general.
His announcement comes just months after he spoke out against Bezos’ directive.
‘For many of us, this is, to quote Elon Musk, a “fork in the road moment” because these kinds of strictures – whatever they turn out to be – are not what we had signed up for,’ he said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, where he served as a chief political analyst.
‘This is not the way we have worked to produce what is, I believe, objectively the best opinion section in American journalism.’
Robinson had joined the paper in 1980, and switched over to the opinion section in 2005. Just four years later, he won a Pulitzer Prize in Commentary for his columns on the 2008 presidential election.
He has since become a vocal critic of President Donald Trump – even as Bezos began a friendship with the commander-in-chief.
In 2017, for example, Robinson hit out at Trump as a ‘weak, narcissistic man.’
More recently, in February, he wrote that the president ‘tramples the Constitution, vandalizes the federal government and trashes our vital international alliances.’
Robinson had joined the paper in 1980, and switched over to the opinion section in 2005, winning a Pulitzer Prize four years later for his coverage of the 2008 presidential election
Robinson was a vocal critic of President Donald Trump – even as Bezos struck up a friendship with the commander in chief. They are pictured here with Satya Nadella, Chief Executive Officer of Microsoft, in 2017
It was just weeks after Robinson published those remarks that Bezos announced his overhaul of the Opinion section and said that opinion editor David Shipley had been axed over his refusal to get on board with the decision.
In the weeks that followed, veteran columnist Ruth Marcus also announced her resignation from the paper after her new bosses would not let her publish a piece slamming Bezos for interfering with the editorial process – which she later published in The New Yorker.
‘I thought that it was important to put my reasons for disagreement on the record,’ Marcus wrote in her essay before lamenting that journalistic freedoms were being ‘dangerously eroded’ under Bezos and the new opinion editor, Will Lewis.
‘I love the Post. It breaks my heart to conclude that I must leave’ she said as she claimed Bezos’ business interests with the Trump administration were playing a role in his decision making at the paper.
Many other opinion staff have left the newspaper in recent months, with Bezos firing the opinion section’s editor David Shipley in February when he refused to comply with his new directive, and veteran columnist Ruth Marcus releasing a scorched-earth essay about why she quit last month
Scores of other columnists left the newspaper after Bezos refused to run an endorsement of former Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the presidential election and decided not to run a cartoon showing caricatures of Bezos, Mickey Mouse and others offering bags of money to Trump.
Meanwhile, the Blue Origin founder and his fiancée Lauren Sanchez were seen traveling to Mar-a-Lago ahead of Trump’s inauguration for dinner with the then president-elect.
Footage shared on X shows the couple holding hands and walking alongside Trump as they greet other guests.
Bezos also announced he would donate $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, and when Trump was finally sworn into office in January, Bezos stood prominently by his side.
Ever since, Bezos has been slowly edging away from his paper’s liberal leanings with his decision to change the opinion page and his refusal in February to back out of running a $115,000 front page advert targeting DOGE Chief Elon Musk.
The Trump administration apparently appreciates what Bezos has done, with White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt praising his efforts last month.
‘It appears that the mainstream media, including The Post, is finally learning that having disdain for more than half of the country who supports this president does not help you sell newspapers,’ she claimed. ‘It’s not a very good business model.’
