Jeff Bezos
Soon after Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, acquired The Washington Post for $250 million in 2013, he assured its editors and reporters — myself included — that he would give us the freedom to do our jobs and “follow the story” without interference from him.
At a 2016 Washington Post tech forum with Marty Baron, who was then executive editor, Bezos quoted a phrase he had heard from the legendary Watergate reporter Bob Woodward: “Democracy dies in darkness.”
It was a perfect motto to advertise the mission of one of America’s most storied and respected news organizations — a newspaper that has won 76 Pulitzer Prizes since 1936 — and herald the new ownership of a company that had been run by one family for 80 years.
