Eugene Robinson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist at The Washington Publish, introduced that he’s leaving the newspaper on Thursday after billionaire proprietor Jeff Bezos’ overhaul to its editorial pages.
Robinson — in an e mail to Publish staffers — wrote that Bezos’ plan for a “important shift” to the opinion part’s mission “has spurred me to resolve that it’s time for my subsequent chapter,” The New York Occasions’ Ben Mullin reported.
Robinson, who joined the newspaper again in 1980, appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” again in February the place he slammed Bezos’ resolution on the time.
“This isn’t the way in which we’ve got labored to supply what’s, I imagine, objectively one of the best opinion part in American journalism and I might — I might defend that,” he stated.
“I believe it’s a mistake journalistically, I believe it’s a mistake as a enterprise proposition however, you realize, it leaves us with decisions and choices to make about our futures.”
The exit by Robinson ― who gained a Pulitzer Prize for his columns on Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential marketing campaign ― joins different journalists which have bid farewell to The Publish, together with longtime columnist Ruth Marcus, who claimed the writer spiked a chunk ripping Bezos’ plan for the opinion part.
In January, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist Ann Telnaes revealed that she stop the paper over a sketch it killed that featured the billionaire on bended knee for President Donald Trump.
A spokesperson for the paper, in a press release to The Every day Beast, remarked on Robinson’s 45 years of reporting and commentary that “spanned continents and beats, incomes numerous recognitions” such because the Pulitzer Prize.
“Eugene’s sturdy perspective and impeccable integrity have commonly formed our public discourse, cementing his legacy as a number one voice in American journalism,” the spokesperson stated.
Invoice O’Leary/The Washington Publish through Getty Photos
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Bezos, who attended Trump’s inauguration alongside together with his fiancée, Lauren Sanchez, in January, noticed backlash within the newsroom when he introduced that the opinion part could be revamped to deal with the “two pillars” of “private liberties and free markets.”
The choice arrived a number of months after Bezos introduced that the paper would not endorse presidential candidates. The Publish’s editorial board had reportedly drafted an endorsement for then-Vice President Kamala Harris on the time however, following the billionaire’s evaluation of the choice, it was scrapped.
The paper, after the non-endorsement and Bezos’ opinion overhaul, noticed its subscriptions crater, though the paper reportedly pointed to a rise of 400,000 subscribers throughout a gathering final week.