Has Jeff Bezos brought down the Washington Post?
Americast
BBC
4.3 • 3.1K Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The paper that contributed to the resignation of President Nixon over Watergate and the Vietnam war is now having to rethink its future. The Washington Post’s owner - Amazon boss Jeff Bezos - has announced mass layoffs at the newspaper, which will fundamentally change how it covers the news.
When Bezos bought the paper in 2013, he reassured staff about a “new golden era for the Washington Post”, and later adopted a new slogan for the Washington Post “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.
Justin and Anthony discuss why the cuts have happened and what the wider impact may be on US media. With Bezos defending the cuts as “the data tells us what is valuable and where to focus", we look at whether the role of money, influence, and closeness to President Trump could also be at play?
HOSTS: • Justin Webb, Radio 4 presenter • Anthony Zurcher, North America Correspondent
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This episode was made by Rufus Gray, Grace Reeve and Kris Jalowiecki. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The series producer is Purvee Pattni. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.7 | Who cares if the Washington Post dies? The answer are a lot of people, because that newspaper is very |
| 0:12.2 | famous, famous around the world, because once it brought down a president, President Nixon, |
| 0:17.0 | in the early 1970s. The Watergate reporting did for him. It was bought by Amazon's owner, |
| 0:23.9 | Jeff Bezos, back in 2013, and a few years later, he still seemed to be full of optimism about it. |
| 0:30.1 | It's not a rare belief. I think a lot of us believe this, that democracy dies in darkness, |
| 0:34.8 | that certain institutions have a very important role in making |
| 0:40.3 | sure that there is light. |
| 0:42.3 | And I think the Washington Post has a seat, an important seat to do that because we happen |
| 0:48.3 | to be located here in the capital city of the United States of America. |
| 0:52.3 | That phrase, democracy dies in darkness, was adopted as the official motto of the post |
| 0:56.6 | back in 2017. |
| 0:59.2 | Jeff Bezos, though, has now announced huge job cuts, a third of the workforce gone. |
| 1:05.7 | So is the paper that once took down a president, now in the pocket of another. |
| 1:11.2 | Welcome to AmeriCast. |
| 1:15.2 | AmeriCast from BBC News. |
| 1:18.3 | When Donald Trump calls, they say, yes, sir, right away, sir. |
| 1:21.8 | Happy to lick your boot, sir. |
| 1:23.6 | We are the sickest country in the world. |
| 1:26.0 | Oh, dear, are you worried that billionaires are going to go hungry? |
| 1:29.7 | Of course the president supports peaceful protest. |
| 1:31.6 | What a stupid question. |
... |
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