Apparently, ABC News and Disney were against “personal freedoms and free markets.” That was the message being sent judging by the reaction from the liberal ladies of The View, on Friday, when they were collectively up in arms over Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos telling the opinion side of the paper those American ideals were what they were going to focus on.
“Now, The Washington Post owner and multibillionaire Jeff Bezos said he's retooling the opinion section of the paper to reflect opinions he agrees with. Isn't that censorship?” bloviated Joy Behar, fresh from baselessly accusing Elon Musk of being “pro-apartheid” and “enemy” of America.
Pretend independent Sara Haines sensed that something wasn’t right with what Behar alleged Bezos had said. “Did he say it's only things he agreed with?” she asked. “Basically yeah,” Behar proclaimed.
But, yet again, Behar was lying and making stuff up, so it’s a good thing Bezos made his statement public for the world to see (click “expand”):
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.
After only reading Bezos’s “personal liberties and free markets” quote, co-host Sunny Hostin ignored the rest with a flippant “whatever he means by that.”
Behar then bizarrely tried to tie Bezos’s decision to the activities of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE):
BEHAR: So, wait a minute. So, if you're against -- you're only pro-free markets that would justify them firing all these federal workers?
HOSTIN: I think it's what it means.
BEHAR: Or you could not write about that in the paper? That this is an outrageous thing to do.
HOSTIN: It seems that way. I’m not sure. I think we'll get further clarification.
Both Hostin and Behar then lied about Bezos being the one who created and then removed The Washington Post’s “democracy dies in darkness” tag line:
HOSTIN: It seems that way. I’m not sure. I think we'll get further clarification. But what I will say is, I mean, he came up with that buzz line, “democracy dies in darkness.”
BEHAR: He took it away.
Both claims were false. Bob Woodward popularized the phase and as of the publication of this piece, the tagline was still present on The Washington Post website.
Faux conservative Alyssa Farah Griffin laughably claimed the paper “has a very representative editorial board and opinion section.” As her evidence of the “Republican voices” the paper could boast was George Will, who quite publicly left the GOP. The other name she gave was Marc Thiessen. From there her examples dried up.
Out of left field, almost literally, Behar threw out “Eugene Robinson,” who was never on the right and was a staple on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.
Farah Griffin went on to blame Bezos’s Wednesday statement for why “Phil Rucker, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, their star reporters from the first Trump administration have all fled to different outlets.” But all three of them left for new outlets in January: CNN, The Atlantic, and The Wall Street Journal, respectively.
If any Bezos-led rule changed sparked their job searches, it was likely his refusal to let the paper throw its weight behind a candidate for president (they wanted to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris), which is weird thing for an independent press to do. And in Rucker’s case, he got a serious promotion from national editor with The Post to senior vice president for editorial strategy and news at CNN; seeing as Rucker was a regular on MSNBC, CNN could have been the ones to approach him.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
February 28, 2025
11:16:11 a.m. EasternJOY BEHAR: So earlier this week the White House announced they're going to handpick which media outlets are allowed in the presidential press pool. Now, The Washington Post owner and multibillionaire Jeff Bezos said he's retooling the opinion section of the paper to reflect opinions he agrees with.
Isn't that censorship?
One Post editor already resigned over this, his name is David Shipley. And I don't know that that helps, if you resign you have no power at all.
SARA HAINES: Did he say it's only things he agreed with?
BEHAR: Basically yeah.
SUNNY HOSTIN: He actually said the opinion section would embrace “personal liberties and free markets” and basically those opinions that disagreed with personal liberties and free markets, whatever he means by that. They can find elsewhere to write about.
BEHAR: So, wait a minute. So, if you're against -- you're only pro-free markets that would justify them firing all these federal workers?
HOSTIN: I think it's what it means.
BEHAR: Or you could not write about that in the paper? That this is an outrageous thing to do.
HOSTIN: It seems that way. I’m not sure. I think we'll get further clarification. But what I will say is, I mean, he came up with that buzz line, “democracy dies in darkness.”
BEHAR: He took it away.
HOSTIN: He has taken it away. I'm sort of surprised by it. I wonder what the ramifications will be. Right? Cause, will people now cancel their subscriptions to The Washington Post?
HAINES: They were already doing that in hordes after they –
HOSITN: In hordes. And so there may be repercussions. I mean, I know today on Friday, there's been calls for a blackout, economically, this economic blackout.
BEHAR: Yeah.
HOSTIN: You know, I tend to speak with my dollars. I do. Because if this is a world that's all about business and free markets, then I have the freedom to not choose -- to choose not to do something. To choose not to spend my dollars.
[Applause]
I don't know if that will happen but I wonder if it will.
BEHAR: We’ll see.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: What surprised me actually is The Washington Post has a very representative editorial board and opinion section. They have Republican voices; George Will is one of their longest running columnists, whom I'm a huge fan of and Marc Thiessen is also a right-of-center columnist.
BEHAR: Eugene Robinson
FARAH GRIFFIN: Yes. So, they're not – It's not like they were only platforming liberal voices but it’s had the unintended side effect of making some of their best journalists leave. And journalism, not opinion, has been the lifeblood of The Washington Post since the Woodward days. Since Phil Rucker, Ashley Parker, Josh Dawsey, their star reporters from the first Trump administration have all fled to different outlets. I would think largely in part because of the changes that are coming.
It just goes against like the ethos of the journalism should be objective but opinions should kind of be all inclusive.
(…)