WaPo’s New Direction Draws First Blood As Longtime Op-Ed Editor Ruth Marcus Quits

Ruth Marcus, a longtime editor of The Washington Post’s editorial page, resigned and accused CEO Will Lewis of spiking her piece criticizing the paper’s new direction in an email obtained by Semafor’s Maxwell Tani.

In her departure note, Marcus claimed Lewis scrapped an editorial “expressing concern about the newly announced direction for the section,” according to screenshots obtained by Tani.

Marcus’ note to Lewis and owner Jeff Bezos pic.twitter.com/YW8FN5g3fB

— Max Tani (@maxwelltani) March 10, 2025

The paper’s owner Jeff Bezos announced a new direction for the editorial section in February, claiming they will focus on “personal liberties and free markets” and will not be publishing criticism of those two pillars.

Marcus claimed she attempted to write an op-ed “respectfully dissenting” from Bezos’s position and was rejected. (RELATED: Legacy Media Die-Off In Full Swing As WaPo Set To Lay Off Dozens: REPORT)

“The traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded,” she said in a message she wrote directly to Bezos and Lewis, according to Tani.

“Jeff’s announcement that the opinion section will henceforth not publish views that deviate from the pillars of individual liberties and free markets threatens to break the trust of readers that columnists are writing what they believe, not what the owner has deemed acceptable,” she also wrote, according to Tani.

Marcus had worked at the paper for over 40 years. She started in 1984 as an editorial writer and columnist, eventually becoming the deputy editorial page editor in 2016, according to her LinkedIn profile.

The act of rebellion follows a pattern. Multiple prominent WaPo employees also quit in protest after the paper’s editorial board chose not to endorse Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.