Let’s Talk About Courage and Honesty

Hey fam –

It’s JVL, the editor of The Bulwark, and I want to talk about two things: courage and honesty.

Let’s start with the Washington Post’s slogan. It is, technically, still “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” If you get the print edition or go to their website, that’s what it still says up top, anyway.

But it turns out that’s not true. Democracy dies in broad daylight, for all to see.

That’s the main takeaway from Jeff Bezos’s decision to reorient the paper’s opinion section toward “free markets and personal liberties.”

This after Bezos appeared at Trump’s inauguration, contributed to Trump’s transition slush fund, and made lots of pleasant noises about the new administration.

“Free markets and personal liberties.” Is that how you would describe a president who is actively waging war on the media, starting as many trade wars as possible, and cozying up to the world’s biggest dictators?

It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here: Bezos knows he needs to curry favor with Trump to preserve access to federal contracts for his other companies.

But it’s actually worse than that: Bezos is refusing to take his own side—the side of American liberal democracy—in the fight against Trump’s autocracy. Simply put, he’s willing to sacrifice the Post’s integrity, and his own, for the bottom line.

Here at The Bulwark, we will never do this.

We got started during the first Trump term, and since then we’ve grown, adding lots of newsletters and podcasts, plus daily video content. We have reporters breaking news in the field, and expert analysis and insights from Sarah Longwell, Tim Miller, Bill Kristol, Sam Stein, and the whole gang. And we’re adding more major talent in the next few days.

Looking around, it’s pretty obvious that the legacy media isn’t up for this fight. The Post and others are perfectly happy to submit to Trump. They’ve made their decision, and we’ve made ours.

Here’s where we stand: We will never grovel to the Dear Leader. We will never lie to our audience. We will never betray our principles for political expediency. And we will never beclown ourselves the way our tech oligarchs have.

If you’re with us, support our work—and help ensure America still has a free press under the new regime: Subscribe.

—JVL

If we want an independent media that isn’t the plaything of oligarchs, we’re going to have to build it, together. Come ride with us.