The truth about covering Amazon for Washington Post

Former Washington Post technology columnist Geoffrey Fowler writes on his new Substack about covering Aamazon.com., founded by Post owner Jeff Bezos.

Fowler writes, “Not once in my time at the Post was I told I couldn’t write about Amazon, or that Bezos was displeased. Marty Baron, the executive editor who hired me, used to tell me about all the positive letters he’d get from readers when I told the truth about Amazon. It was useful for the Post — and possibly even Bezos himself — to point to this sort of independence.

“The Post’s current leadership hasn’t explained its decision to slash tech coverage publicly or to me privately. The layoffs have been messy, as witnessed by Saturday’s abrupt departure of Post publisher Will Lewis.

“In a press release about the Post’s future, Bezos said, ‘The data tells us what is valuable and where to focus.’

“What does the data tell us? Americans have more interest in tech than ever before — and what they want is accountability. According to the Pew Research Center, only 50% of Americans believe tech companies have a positive effect on the way things are going in the country, a 21-point drop from 71% in 2015. Concern specifically about AI is spiking: 50% of adults report being more concerned than excited about AI’s growing role in daily life, a sharp increase from 37% in 2021.”

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