“Democracy Dies in Darkness” Wasn’t a Warning; It Was Our End Goal

“Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post, announced a major shift to the newspaper’s opinion section on Wednesday, saying it would now advocate ‘personal liberties and free markets’ and not publish opposing viewpoints on those topics.” — New York Times

For nearly 150 years, the Washington Post has been a pillar of the American media landscape. As one of the nation’s papers of record, it has always stayed true to its values. That’s why, a few years after I bought it, I, Jeff Bezos, proudly chose our slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

That said, it has come to my attention that many of our readers misunderstood my reason for adopting that phrase—first popularized by legendary investigative journalist Bob Woodward. In hindsight, I can see how some might have interpreted the move as a reminder of the media’s responsibility to report the truth, hold those in power accountable, and put integrity over profit. But that could not be further from the truth. Because “Democracy Dies in Darkness” was never a stern word of warning; it’s always been my end goal.

I assure you that, long before I purchased the Washington Post, and long before Donald Trump was re-elected, the Post’s mission had always been to undermine American democracy. When they helped publish the Pentagon Papers, it wasn’t about holding the government accountable for lying to the American people about the Vietnam War; it was about speeding along America’s demise. And when they broke the Watergate story, it wasn’t about uncovering corruption; it was one more step in a decades-long journalistic coup d’etat. As the new owner, I’m not capitulating to Donald Trump; I’m just finishing what the Post started.

That’s why my latest announcement should come as no surprise. Rather than publishing a broad range of viewpoints, our opinion section will now focus exclusively on personal liberties and free markets. This change is just the nail in the coffin of a carefully calculated plan to turn the United States into the tin-pot dictatorship of my dreams. It’s definitely not because I’m scared of any investigations that the DOJ’s antitrust division may or may not launch.

In his book On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder famously wrote, “Do not obey in advance.” And I totally agree with him. I just think there were a few typos. When it comes to choosing whether or not to resist authoritarianism, I believe Snyder meant to write, “Do not! Obey in advance!”

Critics say that newspapers shouldn’t be owned by billionaires like me who stand to gain financially from currying favor with the president. But the Post’s editorial decisions have nothing to do with my relationship with Donald Trump, and everything to do with what’s best for America. Namely, the dismantling of our constitutional rights and democratic institutions.

Plus, those same critics fail to point out the many benefits of a billionaire tech mogul currying favor with the president. For example, if their cozy relationship meant that said billionaire’s company could continue to provide the Department of Defense with critical cloud storage infrastructure and secure, scalable, and mission-focused computing solutions that assist America’s military in detecting and neutralizing threats both at home and abroad. Just to name one hypothetical example.

For those afraid this will change the stories we publish, don’t worry—our newspaper will always report the truth. In fact, later today, we’ll be publishing an explosive new report proving once and for all that, during the 2020 presidential election, Dominion Voting Systems colluded with the Department of Justice to cover up millions of fraudulent ballots across several states, some of which didn’t even use Dominion Voting machines. The report also explains why Democrats tampered with the 2020 election but not the 2024 election, which was administered totally freely and fairly.

Eventually, I think everyone will see why the American experiment was a mistake and why we should embrace totalitarian rule as quickly as possible. Besides, Americans won’t care about freedom of expression as long as the spaceships to Mars run on time.