TGIF: A New Washington Post?

If Jeff Bezos is as good as his word, the advocates of full liberty will owe him a standing ovation. As everyone knows by now, Amazon.com founder Bezos, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time—a man whose profit-making activities have benefitted mankind worldwide—has announced that the editorial page of his newspaper, the Washington Post, will be devoted to promoting the free market and personal liberty. Before Bezos bought the Post in 2013, it was a leading champion of government intervention throughout the economy, which means throughout our lives. If he consistently follows through, this will be quite a change.

As he put it in a memo to the staff, which was posted on X:

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.

I'll get one of my pet peeves out of the way. Bezos's two pillars are one: individual liberty. Nothing is more personal than how we make and spend our money. My decision to earn my living as a plumber is a personal decision. When the government forbids me to do that without a license, that violates my personal liberty. An individual is an integrated whole.

Bezos continued:

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.

He's got a point. Some people will be bothered that Bezos says "viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others." That sounds like he won't let his op-ed editor publish regular or guest columnists who oppose freedom and free markets. (No columnist has resigned to my knowledge.) It's not just the unsigned editorials that will take up the cause. Isn't that narrow and intolerant? Bezos reasonably points out that through the internet, the full range of views is at everyone's fingertips. So why is every newspaper obliged to present a smorgasbord of opinion?

His next paragraph is excellent:

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.

How often do you hear it said that ethical ideals, particularly freedom, are practical? Not very. Libertarians have been saying that for a long time, but it hasn't sunk in. Many people believe that freedom is impractical and that the government must routinely override it to maintain order or other values. That's balderdash, but many people have been taken in by the self-serving line.

Bezos wrapped up:

I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I’m excited for us together to fill that void.

A couple of points: Bezos is accused of sucking up to Trump. But freedom and free enterprise—which means, among other things, unobstructed global trade and the free movement of people—are not pillars of Trumpism. Trumpism is the rule of Trump's autonomous whims, which may face few checks from other power centers. The ability of producers and consumers to plan long-term is at the mercy of his mood. (He might give company X an exemption from a tariff, but he might not.) It's what historian Robert Higgs calls "regime uncertainty," a highly destructive thing. It's not the free market. It's the opposite! We'll have to watch the Post's editorial page closely, but this announcement would be a funny way to win over the MAGA crowd.

I'm left wondering what the page will say about foreign policy. Contrary to popular impression, an interventionist foreign policy must violate freedom and free enterprise. How could it not? If Bezos's Post opposes Trumpian interventions in Ukraine and the Middle East, that will be significant. Full disengagement from those conflicts is imperative in the name of liberty. Trump's plan to build up the military is wrongheaded. As classical liberals (libertarians) have long understood, the warfare state is inimical to liberty.