Bill Press: ‘Democracy dies in darkness’

Bill Press, Tribune Content Agency on Feb 5, 2026

Washington’s annual Gridiron Dinner is a throw-back to the 19th century: women in long gowns; men in white tie; officials of both political parties, who pretend to get along for one night; and journalists who play nice to politicians they routinely roast during the day.

I was there in 2017, Donald Trump’s first year in office. But the rock star of the evening was not the new president. It was the new owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos. Ignoring Trump, journalists like me lined up to shake hands with Bezos and thank him for breathing new life into one of our greatest newspapers.

One day after Trump took office, in fact, Bezos demonstrated his commitment to journalism by giving the Post a new slogan blaring out from the top of the front page: “Democracy dies in darkness.” We all knew its powerful double-meaning: when governments operate in secret, accountability is lost; and a free, independent press is vital to maintaining a functional democracy.

What a burst of new faith in good journalism, but how brutally it’s been shattered. Nine years ago, we celebrated Jeff Bezos for saving the Washington Post. Today, we condemn him for destroying it. Bezos decided to no longer hold Donald Trump accountable. He decided to become one of his biggest enablers, instead.

Bezos actually started out OK. After buying the Post for $250 million in 2013, he doubled the size of the national reporting staff, increased foreign coverage and invested more money into building the paper’s online and video capacity. Trump repeatedly attacked the Post for its coverage and retaliated against Bezos by ordering the US Postal Service to raise delivery rates on Amazon. Yet, despite those threats, Bezos remained strong, even though the Post was losing money. But that suddenly changed when it looked like Trump might make it back to the White House. Bezos realized his two other mega-business ventures, Amazon and Blue Origin, both of which depend on federal government contracts, might be threatened under a second Trump administration. So he decided to throw the Post to the wolves.

It started in 2024 with significant layoffs and buyouts. Then, on Oct. 25, 2024, only 11 days before Election Day, the Post announced it was canceling its planned editorial endorsement of Kamala Harris – prompting hundreds of thousands of loyal readers to cancel their subscriptions.

As if that wasn’t enough to curry Trump’s favor, Bezos followed up by contributing $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, showing up at his inauguration and shelling out $40 million, plus $35 million in advertising, for Melania Trump’s self-promotion documentary.

By now, Bezos was one of Trump’s biggest cheerleaders. So imagine how Trump cheered this week when Bezos, in effect, pulled the plug on the Post. On Wednesday, February 4, the Post announced it was firing 300 of 800 journalists in its newsroom. There will be no more sports section, even though Washington has four major league teams. No more book section. No more local news. And no more international coverage from the Middle East, India and Australia. It’s no exaggeration to say there will be no more Washington Post. Certainly not the Washington Post that won the Pulitzer Prize for its courageous coverage of Watergate.

No matter where you live in this country, this is bad news. Because it underscores the danger to free and independent journalism, so essential to democracy, under Donald Trump. As the Post’s former Executive Editor Marty Baron lamented, "This ranks among the darkest days in the history of one of the world’s greatest news organizations."

And the worst part is – unlike Trump’s suing ABC, CBS, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, or prosecuting Don Lemon – the Post’s demise is entirely self-inflicted. As Peter Baker of the New York Times reported, Bezos is worth $249.4 billion today. If the Post is, in fact, losing $100 million a year, Bezos could absorb those losses for five years – for what he makes in a single week. It’s not that Bezos can’t afford the Post anymore, he just doesn’t care. He’d rather suck up to Donald Trump.

Is there anything we can do about it? Here’s what I’ve decided. I read a lot of books. For years, I’ve been one of Amazon’s best customers. But no longer. No more Amazon for me. It may take longer, but I’d rather order from my local bookstore than give Jeff Bezos one more penny to fuel his $500 million yacht.

(Bill Press is host of The BillPressPod, and author of 10 books, including: “From the Left: My Life in the Crossfire.” His email address is: bill@billpress.com. Readers may also follow him on Twitter @billpresspod and on BlueSky @BillPress.bsky.social.)