It's the Brian Marrissau on WNYC. Good morning, everyone.

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.

So we'll talk about this news in the context of the Washington Post

and what's right or wrong for the Post and for opinion pages generally today.

But we'll also discuss it in historical context

and make it the latest segment in our history series,

100 years of 100 things.

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