From WNYC Studios.

I'm Brian Lerer.

This is my daily politics podcast.

It's Thursday, February 27.

Well, the big news from the Washington Post yesterday was about the Washington Post.

The owner, Jeff Bezos, who also owns

Amazon, in case you've been away for a few decades, officially declared that the opinion pages

in the post will now publish, quote, every day in support and defense of two pillars, personal

liberties, and free markets. I'll read that again. In support and defense of two pillars, personal liberties, and free markets. I'll read that again. In support and defense of

two pillars, personal liberties and free markets. And he wrote, viewpoints opposing those pillars

will be left to be published by others. He went on to write part of his rationale for this

change. Quote, there was a time when newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly,

might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader's doorstep every morning a broad-based

opinion section that sought to cover all views.

Today, the Internet does that job, unquote, from Jeff Bezos.

Now, obviously, this has sparked a

firestorm of reaction in the worlds of journalism, economics, and politics. And of course,

it comes after the Post infamously canceled the endorsement of Kamala Harris for president

that their editorial board had been planning to make.

Now, after arguing that it should not choose sides on presidential candidates in order to be

seen as independent, the paper is declaring forcefully that it will choose sides every day,

in Bezos's words, on a particular political philosophy.

...