Billionaire meddling turns a respected paper into a megaphone for personal agendas.
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this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2025
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Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
this is a very interesting sentence to find in a post that outlines the ways in which the opinion page will be losing some of its editorial freedom.
He's basically making the exact same argument as Faux News did, 30 years or more after anyone reasonable realized that they were blatantly lying.
what's "stunning" about the statement?
All I saw was:
- Opinion Editor did not want to continue to be a meat puppet for this propaganda outlet
- Bezos accepted resignation
- Bezos to look for new meat puppet
We recently got rid of our subscriptions and canceled Prime. Wish we had done it much sooner, but better late than never.
Most decent manufacturers have their own website and fast shipping. I had to leave Amazon just for the fake and damaged merchandise alone.
I've already set up subscriptions with several manufacturers directly through their sites vs ordering through Amazon. Same or better prices, too.
Y’all, stop buying shit from Amazon, completely. That’s where you start.
Bezos has money because we continue to give it to him. So, the first order of business is to simply stop spending money with him.
As in, forever.
Find an alternative vendor, or even schlep on down to a physical store if you need to.
I agree, but also they don't make their money from sales. They make money from AWS servers/ services. I would bet that they lose money or maybe slightly break even on every sale of a physical item.
Yeah, the warehouses are quite badly run.
Edit; I’ve had a beer. In my experience of the one I’ve worked in.
Ugh, that really sucks. I didn’t realize AWS was their bread and butter now.
Even so.
Last time I looked at Amazon's books, their retail arm was barely profitable. Most of their actual profits came from AWS.
Azure (MS) or GCP (Google) are the alternatives.
Or if you want to avoid Big Tech altogether, there’s DigitalOcean, Akamai, Linode, IBM, Cloudflare, and a handful of other point providers.
if you want to avoid Big Tech altogether, there’s ... IBM
If I had been drinking anything when I read that it would have ended up all over my screen.
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Would love to see a really comprehensive list of sites that aren't garbage AI slop scam alleyways that would help cover the goods and services that Amazon acts as a one-stop convenience for. I don't want to support Amazon, but I also don't want to get scammed by handing out my credit card info to any old shopping site.
Feel free to add more suggestions in your own replies.
I'll start :
Electronics : B&H Photo - owned by religious folks so hours of operation are a little odd sometimes, but overall good customer service, fair prices, reliable shipping
Grocieries : Central Market - HEB's high-tier store chain for high-quality groceries, instead of Whole Foods
Kitchen supplies : Webstaurant - Wholesale store for things like home kitchen goods and supplies, as well as things like flatware and dishes
B&H photo isn't just "owned by religious folks". They staff everything above the warehouse exclusively with Hasidic Orthodox Jewish men.
Afaik they aren't tied to supporting Zionism. They had some problems a decade ago with safety standards and union busting.
I want a non profit/open source store aggregator where we can search for what we want like Amazon but direct is to the site with the item we are looking for.
Like pcpartpicker, but for everything!
Amazon is a server hosting company that happens to sell cheap junk.
All of lemmy shopping Prime is a drop in the oceans of the millions per month my company pays aws
"Democracy dies in Darkness"
-Washington Post
"Nah, I knifed that bitch in the back in broad daylight."
-Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos Announces Resignation
They had us in the first half, not gonna lie
What position would Bezos resign from, out of curiosity?
Instead, he asked Freedom Of the Press to step down.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.
Democracy dies in the free market.
Who wants democracy, when we can have an anarcho-capitalist libertarian utopia?
anarcho-capitalist libertarian utopia?
I hate that edgelord libertarians are trying to rebrand themselves as "anarcho-capatalist". Anarchy and capitalism are antithetical to one another. It doesn't have anything to do with anarchy if you aren't evaluating hierarchy, and capitalism is literally one of the most hierarchical organizational structures possible.
edgelord libertarians are trying to rebrand themselves as "anarcho-capatalist
Actually, American style " libertarianism" IS anarcho-capitalism. They've just been trying to keep that a secret until recently.
Anarchy and capitalism are antithetical to one another.
Yes, and no. Anarcho-capitalism is anarchic in the colloquial "no rules, no order" sense, whereas political anarchy very much isn't.
The stupidity of the term is what makes it apt, though: the people politically illiterate enough to think that a total lack of regulations and worker's rights would lead to anything resembling freedom also think that the colloquial definition of anarchy is the politically accurate one.
It's anarchy for the hierarchies, not for the components of the hierarchies
anarcho-capitalist
So, sociopath.
libertarian
That's like a narcissist hat on top of a sociopath hat. It's a hat on a hat.
Fun fact: Conservatism was literally invented by a monarchist in the aftermath of the French revolution trying to find a way for an aristocracy to exist within democracy.
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There was a time when a 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.
That's exactly what a journalistic organisation is meant to do Jeff, especially now when the world is increasingly being filled with mouthpieces that regurgitate what their owners want them to.
An organisation that puts out only one opinion, or is only allowed to put out one opinion, is nothing more than a mouthpiece.
Its a shame to see the Post becoming just another mouthpiece.
Bezos’s exercise of greater control over the Post‘s journalism in recent months has raised eyebrows.
Raised eyebrows? Is mild-washing a word? It should be.
The gall of these billionaires to just buy a news organization and then blatantly state "we're not going to do news anymore" is just incredible.
Even Rupert Murdock had the courtesy to come up with the Fox News "Fair and Balanced" slogan (even though it was completely full of shit).
Bezos is just like "yeah we're going full on propaganda, go fuck yourself."
On the other end, you've got billionaire Jeff Lawson rescuing The Onion from private equity hell. I count their revived print subscription as one of the best things I've spent money on recently, considering it used to be free.
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Maybe it's time for people to start submitting Opinion pieces detailing how we can use the free market to make companies regret discontinuing their DEI programs or Pride merchandise, or telling how bodily autonomy and control over one's reproductive equipment is a central pillar of personal liberty.
Editing to add: in the event your submission is rejected, consider adding an opener such as: "This article was rejected by The Washington Post despite meeting their criteria of focus on the free market (or personal liberty)." And then submitting it to one or several of their competitors. Even the ones that aren't any better, pitting their competitive instincts against their conservativism.
You're right, it's time. Apes together strong.
Interestingly, the Post and the NYT both lean heavily on their Opinion sections to pretend they're not licking boots. Now the Post won't have that option.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
Just dragging this newspaper into the right wing muck at full speed now
I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.
"Market of ideas" but you're only allowed to say what I like
...in Stunning Statement
I’m writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages.
We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.
There was a time when a 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.
I am of America and for America, and proud to be so. Our country did not get here by being typical. And a big part of America’s success has been freedom in the economic realm and everywhere else. Freedom is ethical — it minimizes coercion — and practical — it drives creativity, invention, and prosperity.
I offered David Shipley, whom I greatly admire, the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn’t “hell yes,” then it had to be “no.” After careful consideration, David decided to step away. This is a significant shift, it won’t be easy, and it will require 100% commitment — I respect his decision. We’ll be searching for a new Opinion Editor to own this new direction.
I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.
Can't wait for trans right and abortion opinion piece. No freedom gets more personal.
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What a pompous cunt.
Washington Post was one of the few marginally respectable journalist organizations remaining. It's a sad day for the freedom of the press.
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