OPINION: Order your free speech muzzle on Amazon today

Had I been writing opinion pieces at the turn of the 20th century, my ridicule would have been directed at the Chandler family's manipulation of the L.A. Times or how the McCormicks used the Chicago Tribune as their ultra-conservative pulpit. My social critique though, need not depend on media barons from another era; Jeff Bezos and his Washington Post will do just fine.

He acquired the Post in 2015 in a $250 million all-cash deal. He didn’t haggle on price. As his biographer, Brad Stone, put it, Bezos was after “a seat at the table.” Capital Beltway insiders had relied on the Post’s media drip-feed for the direction of the political headwinds. Some others, like myself, still do (though I am actively weighing my options). At its peak in 2020, well before Bezos was being fitted for his William Randolf Hearst smoking jacket, there were 3 million Post subscribers. He yanked on the reins, broke with tradition, and refused to endorse either Harris or Trump, and observed as half a million clicked the “cancel my subscription” button; over the last 10 days another 75,000 waved goodbye.

Many of those who jumped ship nauseated, accompanied their exit with letters of support — backing the prominent Post editors and journalists who had resigned. Political reporters Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer, and most recently, Opinion Editor David Shipley all departed. Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes’s send-off was a drawing that featured Bezos at Trump’s feet with on oversized sack of cash. It never made it to print. Associate Editor David Maraniss, after almost half a century with the Post, had seen enough: “One pernicious step after another, Bezos encroached on the editorial policy of the Post. Today he seized it fully. The old Post is dead. I’ll never write for it again as long as he's the owner.”

As a libertarian who had been active and donated to libertarian causes, Bezos held to that once sacred creed of individual freedom of expression, and reassured Post staff shortly after his purchase that “I won’t meddle in day-to-day operations.” And Bezos was true to this word — until it was apparent that a thin-skinned, vengeful King Donald would reclaim the throne. In no time, his cherished values took a backseat to protecting the family jewels.

We need not strain our imaginations to appreciate the mounting threats to the Bezos empire as he looked on with dread as the president evicted the Associated Press (for refusing to use “Gulf of America”), Reuters and HuffPost from the presidential press pool. Even an ally the likes of Fox News’ Jacqui Heinrich registered caution. “This move does not give power back to the people; it gives power to the White House.”

And so, Bezos did what any red-blooded American media oligarch would do: He issued a directive to Post staff that henceforth our opinion page will write in “support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets.” In a shabby attempt to clarify the vagueness, he ordered that Op-Ed writers cease writing “broad-based opinion.” Why? Because, he wrote, “the internet does that job.” That transparent drivel sealed the deal. What remained of staff morale was no match for that edict or his demand for “100% commitment.”

Journalists are going to proudly commit to tightly fastening their new muzzle every morning?

Unfortunately, there is really nothing new to learn here. These sucker fish who survive on their host’s food scraps have been around for millennia. I would go as far to say that branding, the packaging, if you will, of this particular fairly elected tyrant is more laudable than that of Bezos and his Ivy League ambiguity. To his credit, Trump openly spews his sewage openly. It wafts as he intends, untreated before our nostrils.

There will be free stench for all. But free speech? No, not really ... because that’s just how he feels. And how he feels matters more to Bezos than how his staff and readership feel.

This drama of memes kind of reminds me why I chose to write in the first place. Speaking my mind as a kid at the dinner table only to have my folks admonish me, “If you have nothing good to say, don’t say anything at all.” What inspiration! I knew then and there the ink was bound to flow.

After years of globetrotting, Todd J. Broadman finds himself writing from his perch on the Palouse and loving the view. His policy briefs can be found at US Resist News: https://www.usresistnews.org.