Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is facing scathing criticism after The Washington Post on Wednesday cut off roughly one-third of its staff, marking one of the most significant shake-ups in the paper’s 145-year history.
The Washington Post executives cited financial losses and a rapidly changing media landscape as the reason behind this “painful” but necessary restructuring. However, the Internet didn't find much weight in the reason and highlighted that Bezos' personal wealth, at $244.4 billion, is much higher than the losses.
In a post on X on 5 February, Senator Bernie Sanders listed the millions Bezos had recently spent and added that if he had money to spend on them, he definitely didn't need to fire anyone.
“If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff,” Sander wrote. “Democracy dies in oligarchy.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren put the focus on his massive net worth and highlighted that Bezos fired the reporter who held Amazon accountable.
“Jeff Bezos just fired hundreds of reporters at the Washington Post — including the Amazon reporter holding his OWN company accountable. Reminder: Jeff Bezos' net worth is nearly $250,000,000,000,” she said.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez also slammed the Amazon founder and said, “When Jeff Bezos bought WaPo, he immediately took control of the opinions section. Now, he's laying off hundreds of journalists, including those covering Amazon. This isn’t a coincidence. It’s the result of billionaires with vested political agendas taking over our media.”
Warren Gunnels, Minority Staff Director for Health and Education, said, “Jeff Bezos fired a third of Washington Post's staff & will replace 600,000 Amazon workers with robots. He became $40 billion richer since Trump was elected. His tax rate is 1.1%. Amazon got a $15.7 billion tax break from Trump last year.”
“How much butter does Bezos need, Matt?” he asked on X, replying to Bloomberg columnist Matthew Yglesias.
“Always bears repeating that this is NOT ultimately a financial decision,” Journalist Jack Mirkinson said. “Jeff Bezos is worth over 250 billion dollars. He can afford to lose many millions and never even notice it.”
He added, “This is, at its core, a political and personal decision by Bezos to destroy the post.”
Another journalist, Paul Osbourne, said that he cannot “watch an institution being hollowed out by a billionaire”.
He wrote in a tweet, “I get the people saying ‘don’t cancel @washingtonpost just because Bezos is destroying it,’ but honestly not sure I can stick around to watch an institution being hollowed out by a billionaire who could fund it from his loose change.”
Political pressure and subscriber backlash
The layoffs come amid broader turmoil for US media outlets and heightened political pressure, particularly from US President Donald Trump, who has frequently attacked the press.
The Post also faced backlash late last year after declining to endorse a candidate in the 2024 US presidential election, prompting cancellations of digital subscriptions.
