Jonathan Capehart details Wash Post departure, cites pressure to stay positive during Trump administration
Former Washington Post associate editor Jonathan Capehart detailed his departure from the outlet while guest hosting for Lawrence O'Donnell on MSNBC's The Last Word on Thursday citing a new shift in the editorial board's direction as the reason for his exit Capehart stated viewers that the Post's insistence on an optimistic vision of America while American democracy is in peril made him contemplate whether the outlet was a good fit for him and eventually led to him stepping away from his spot on the editorial board In February the owner of the Post decided that the section would focus on the twin pillars of personal liberties and free markets We in the section received an email from our new editor which reiterated that and added it s also vital that we communicate with optimism about this country in particular and the future in general How can we communicate with optimism about the future in general when we re living in the here and now where American democracy is in peril he questioned WAPO EDITORIAL MEMBER LEAVES OVER BEZOS' 'RELENTLESS PROMOTION OF FREE MARKETS AND PERSONAL LIBERTIES'Following President Donald Trump s re-election Washington Post owner and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos informed that the editorial section of the paper would be changing unit prompting then-opinion editor David Shipley to leave We are going to be writing every day in promotion and defense of two pillars personal liberties and free markets We ll cover other topics too of unit but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others Bezos posted on X in Feb Bezos changes led to a sharp backlash in his newsroom with staffers telling Fox News Digital last month that morale had collapsed at the paper Washington Post Executive Editor Matt Murray stated a buyout scheme for staffers seeking to leave the paper in May LONGTIME WASHINGTON POST FACT CHECKER TAKES BUYOUT SAYS PAPER HAS YET TO FIND REPLACEMENT BEFORE EXITCapehart solicited how the outlet's editorial board was expected to constantly extoll the beauty of a home s doors crown moldings and windows when the rest of the house is engulfed in flames and its foundation is flooding He added that patriotism is incomplete if it doesn't allow for a mirror to be held up to America and its people and slammed the Trump administration for straying from the country's founding principles The administration is playing chicken with federal courts The administration is using masked federal agents to snatch people off the streets and send them to hellish prisons abroad The administration deployed the military on the streets of an American city The president is using his office to enrich himself and his family The president has turned Congress a co-equal branch of authorities into the staff wing of the executive branch he claimed CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST MEDIA AND TRADITION NEWS And we re supposed to ignore it leave it to others to wrestle with on their news pages and websites No no no no no no no The Constitution gives us the inherent unapologetically patriotic right to rail against such affronts to democracy and the rule of law and the First Amendment demands it Capehart added Fox News' David Spector contributed to this summary
