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Ruth Marcus, who has been a columnist for The Washington Post for nearly 20 years, resigned today in what she said was a protest of the decision to kill a piece critical of owner Jeff Bezos’ overhaul of the opinion section.

“Jeff’s announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable,” Marcus wrote in a letter to Bezos and the CEO of the Post, Will Lewis.

She added, “Will’s decision to not run the column that I wrote respectfully dissenting from Jeff’s edict — something that I have not experienced in almost two decades of column writing — underscores that the traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded.

The rumors are out there, how Washington Post drafted the perfect endorsement copy for the democratic party and how Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made sure it never saw the light of day.

I won’t even attempt to downplay the level of unprecedented move that just went down. For the first time in three decades, Washington Post will be heading towards the election day on neutral ground.

Some are saying Elon Musk is inciting his fellow billionaires to walk away from the established norm of supporting Democrats.

Some are saying it’s much deeper than that. Others are frankly reading a lot into Kamala Harris’ proposed tax plans. So with all that’s going on right now, what’s right and what’s not right?

Washington Post Claims They’re Merely Returning To Their Roots By Not Endorsing A Presidential Candidate

Beyoncé is currently drumming up support for Kamala Harris,...

David Simon, the creator of The Wire, has sharply criticized Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, following Bezos’s recent explanation for the newspaper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate just before the election.

In a passionate post on X, Simon detailed his reasons for canceling his subscription to the Post, condemning Bezos as a “technobrat oligarch” and accusing him of breaching public trust.

In his commentary, Simon expressed his dissatisfaction with Bezos’s rationale for the endorsement decision, which Bezos claimed was meant to avoid bias and was not influenced by his business interests.

“Just read Jeff Bezos’s thoughts in his opinion piece in The Post,” Simon began, noting that he initially hesitated to cancel his subscription because he doubted it would impact Bezos financially. However, he felt compelled to act against what he perceived as a defense of “transparent cowardice” from Bezos.

The Wire...

The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos defended the decision of the publication not endorse in the 2024 presidential race, acknowledging that “inadequate planning” and not some “intentional strategy” was to blame for creating a backlash.

“I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here,” Bezos wrote in an op ed in the Post this evening. “Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision.”

Bezos instead said that the decision was motivated by a desire to “increase our credibility,” pointing to low trust in the media in a recent Gallup poll.

He wrote, “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias.

Updated: Two journalists at The Washington Post have stepped down from the editorial board in protest over the publication’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate, with concerns that it was a way for owner Jeff Bezos to placate Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, NPR reported that more than 200,000 had cancelled their digital subscriptions as of midday Monday.

David E. Hoffman, a Pulitzer Prize winning contributing editor, and Molly Roberts, editorial writer covering technology and society, confirmed that they have resigned from the editorial board.

Hoffman wrote in a letter to David Shipley, editorial page editor, “Under our watch at The Post, no one would be lost in silence. Until Friday, I assumed we would apply the same values and principles to an editorial endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in the candidacy of Donald Trump. I find it untenable and...

Updated, with Woodward and Bernstein comment: The Washington Post will not endorse a candidate in the presidential race this cycle, breaking with a longtime tradition.

Publisher Will Lewis, in a memo to staffers, wrote that they “are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”

The Post‘s decision follows the revelation that the Los Angeles Times also decided not to endorse this cycle. That led to a backlash among readers and the resignation of the publication’s editor of editorials, Mariel Garza, along with other staffers.

“We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility,” Lewis wrote. “That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope...

Sally Buzbee is stepping down as executive editor of The Washington Post after three years, as the publication plans to alter the structure of the newsroom leadership.

Matt Murray, former editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal, will succeed Buzbee through the 2024 election. Then, Robert Winnett, deputy editor of The Telegraph Media Group, will take on the new role as editor of the Post, responsible for overseeing core coverage areas including politics, investigations, business, technology, sports and features.

The newsroom restructuring will include the creation of a new division “dedicated to better serving audiences who want to consume and pay for news differently from traditional offerings.” That will include service and social media journalism that is run separately from the core news operation, the Post said.

Buzbee’s exit is the biggest leadership shake up at the Jeff Bezos-owned media property since new publisher and CEO Will Lewis joined the publication in January.

Updated, 11:42 Am: Two more top editors have resigned from the Los Angeles Times ahead of a new round of planned layoffs. Managing Editors Sara Yasin and Shani O. Hilton have exited less than two weeks after executive editor Kevin Merida resigned from the paper.

The moves come as Times journalists on Friday staged the first walkout in the paper’s 142-year history.

Yasin’s resignation note was posted on social media today (see it below), and Hilton left last week. The latter’s Times profile page lists her as “former managing editor,” but Yasin’s profile has not been updated. Hilton joined The Times as a deputy managing editor in 2019, and Yasin arrived in 2022.

Here is Yasin’s resignation post; see the Merida exit story below.

Previously, January 9: Kevin Merida said on Tuesday that he was stepping down as executive editor of the Los Angeles Times, after less...

“Politics is poisonous – even in making movies.”

Those were the words of William Goldman, the gifted screenwriter, who was finishing his script for All the President’s Men in 1972, when his director told him to quit writing. It seems Robert Redford, the co-star, had a new take on his character and he would take over the writing.

Goldman was shocked. His director, Alan Pakula, was depressed. The movie was stalled. Ultimately, Redford pumped up the polemics, the script was finished and the movie was a hit. But for Goldman and Pakula, the lesson was clear: No more political movies; too up tight and personal.

I was reminded of this incident this week when a network executive told me, “Objective coverage won’t stand a chance in the 2024 election. Look at the early mess in covering the Trump trials” – week two of the civil trial began Tuesday, with four criminal trials to come.

Felicia Sonmez, a national political reporter for The Washington Post, sued the publication and its top editors, claiming that she was discriminated against after she went public as a sexual assault survivor.

Sonmez said that the Post’s subsequent prohibition on her from covering MeToo stories caused her personal and professional harm.

The lawsuit, filed in D.C. Superior Court, names the Post as well as a series of top editors, including Martin Baron, who stepped down as executive editor of the publication in February.

Sonmez contended that after she went public in 2018 with her claim that she was sexually assaulted by a colleague when she worked for the Los Angeles Times, the Post prohibited her from covering Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, seeing it as a conflict of interest. The prohibition was extended to other stories involving claims of sexual assault.

The lawsuit...

Liev Schreiber is one of this generation's more understated actors. Possessing a unique gravitas and a distinct and captivating baritone voice, Schreiber has made a career in small roles, everything from Scream's Cotton Weary to Spotlight's Martin Baron. While not all of his roles have been hits (ahem..X-Men Origins: Wolverine) he's known for taking on interesting and sometimes…...

‪The Pulitzer at 100 director and Oscar-winner for Strangers No More, Kirk Simon, has died. Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

The Pulitzer At 100 director and Oscar-winner for Strangers No More, Kirk Simon, died at the age of 63 on April 14 in New York.

For his most recent documentary, Kirk assembled a grand cast plus authors, journalists, composers and photographers who have won Pulitzers, to create a vivid portrait of the importance of Joseph Pulitzer's brilliant idea to establish the School of Journalism at Columbia University and award prizes.

Kirk Simon documented Jane Goodall's work in Chimps: So Like Us Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Kirk Simon documented Jane Goodall's work in Chimps: So Like Us, Ingmar...

New York Times’ Executive Editor Dean Baquet continued his assault on James O’Keefe and project Veritas Monday telling an audience at the National Press Club that the outfit was not journalism and O’Keefe himself was despicable. “I think his work is not investigative journalism,” said Baquet, who was also on stage with his Washington Post counterpart, Marty Baron. “A journalist has to have in his heart or her heart a desire to make society better. All James O’Keefe is trying to do is hurt institutions and get some clicks. He just did a video about it that...

Kirk Simon: "You walk down the hall of Princeton and the first office is Toni Morrison, then it's Tracy K Smith, then it's Jeffrey Eugenides."

In the third and final installment of my conversation with Kirk Simon on The Pulitzer At 100, we discuss filming Natalie Portman in Paris for her reading of Jorie Graham's The Dream of the Unified Field, Liev Schreiber (who played Martin Baron in Tom McCarthy's Spotlight) picking Death Of A Salesman and The Grapes Of Wrath, Ken Burns and The Statue of Liberty, Toni Morrison (Beloved), Jeffrey Eugenides (Middlesex), photographers John Filo (Kent State) and Nick Ut (Napalm Girl), finding Kim Phuc, Maureen Corrigan on Philip Roth, and the man who started it all - Joseph Pulitzer.

Anne-Katrin Titze: Did you direct the actors who were doing the readings at all?

Liev Schreiber chose Death Of A Salesman and The Grapes Of Wrath...

The Pulitzer At 100 director Kirk Simon on the man Liev Schreiber portrayed in Tom McCarthy's Oscar-winning Spotlight: "You do not mess with Marty Baron!" Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Kirk Simon has assembled a grand cast (Helen Mirren, Natalie Portman, John Lithgow, Martin Scorsese, Yara Shahidi, and Liev Schreiber) plus authors, journalists, composers and photographers (including Paula Vogel, Toni Morrison, David Remnick, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Kushner, John Adams, Carl Bernstein, Nicholas Kristof, Jeffrey Eugenides, Thomas Friedman, Michael Cunningham, John Adams, Michael Chabon, Martin Baron, Junot Díaz, Ayad Akhtar, Robin Givhan, Sheri Fink, John Filo, Nick Ut, and Robert A. Caro) who have won Pulitzers, to create a vivid portrait of the importance of Joseph Pulitzer's brilliant idea to establish the School of Journalism at Columbia University and award prizes.

In The Pulitzer At 100, Helen Mirren has a Long Day's Journey Into Night with Eugene O'Neill Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze...

Washington Post Editor Marty Baron joined the Code Media conference Tuesday fresh off a triumph, as his paper’s reporting was instrumental in pushing National Security Adviser and friend of Russia Mike Flynn to resign. However, at the conference at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California, Baron said his publication isn’t looking for a fight with the Trump administration — just doing its job. “We’re not at war with the administration, we’re at work,” he said. Also Read: Washington Post Columnist Warns Journalists of Trump Presidency: 'The Fight of Their Lives' Baron, portrayed in his Boston...

Presidential candidate Donald Trump’s latest fight pits him against one of the real-life journalistic heroes portrayed in “Spotlight”: Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron was played by Liev Schreiber in the Oscar winner for Best Picture. Baron led the Boston Globe’s investigation into widespread cases of child molestation in the Roman Catholic Church, which won the paper a Pulitzer Prize. On Monday, Trump pulled the Post’s media credential for what he called “incredibly inaccurate coverage.” Calling the Washington Post “phony” and “dishonest,” Trump called out an article the paper had recently published, “Donald Trump seems to...

On Mubi Off is a column exploring two films: one currently available on Mubi in the United States, and the other screening offsite (in theaters, on VOD, Blu-ray/DVD, etc).On MUBIThe Official Story (Luis Puenzo, 1985)My instinct to stand, whenever possible, slightly outside the zeitgeist leads me to look askew at things like the Academy Awards. To my mind, they're a good excuse to have a party (heavily attended, so I can pay that much less attention to the ceremony itself), though I realize they have a certain fleeting cachet that can boost the prospects of a film or a career. As a metric of quality, however, they're about as worthless as any mass-consensus accolade. I love Oscar-feted films like The Silence of the Lambs and Schindler's List—to name two stopped-clock cases where AMPAS's tastes corresponded to my own—despite and not because of the number of nude...

One of the best pictures of 2015 is an accurate and relevant movie about a truly difficult subject. Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d'Arcy James, John Slattery and Stanley Tucci lead an impressive ensemble; I don't think I've ever seen such a complicated story told with such clarity, and so entertainingly. Spotlight Blu-ray + DVD + Digital HD Universal Studios Home Entertainment 2015 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 129 min. / Street Date February 23, 2016 / 34.98 Starring Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery, Brian d'Arcy James, Stanley Tucci, Paul Guilfoyle, Len Cariou, Jamey Sheridan. Cinematography Masanobu Takayanagi Film Editor Tom McArdle Original Music Howard Shore Written by Josh Singer & Tom McCarthy Produced by Blye Pagon Faust, Steve Golin, Nicole Rocklin, Michael Sugar Directed by Tom McCarthy

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

They say that The Revenant and The Big Short have a leg up on this year's Oscars, but my vote still goes to Tom McCarthy's Spotlight,...