Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson, an MSNBC contributor and staunch critic of President Trump, said he’s quitting after owner Jeff Bezos’ “significant shift” in the paper’s mission — joining an exodus of journalists at the beleaguered broadsheet.
“The announced ‘significant shift’ in our section’s mission has spurred me to decide that it’s time for my next chapter,” Robinson announced in a memo to fellow staffers on Thursday.
“I wish nothing but the very best for the paper and for all of you. I won’t be a stranger, and I’ll be reading your unparalleled work every single day.”
Bezos, the billionaire Amazon owner, said in February that the left-leaning publication’s opinion pages would shift their coverage to better reflect American values like “personal liberties and “free markets.”
Robinson, who has written for the op-ed page since 2005, is the third Washington Post staffer to leave the paper since Bezos’ edict.
Ex-opinion editor David Shipley quit as soon as the revamp was announced, and longtime columnist Ruth Marcus departed in March, after she said publisher Will Lewis “spiked” a column “expressing concern” over Bezos’ new direction for the section.
Robinson joined the newspaper in 1980 and won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for his columns on the 2008 presidential campaign, focusing on Barack Obama’s rise to the presidency.
He is also the author of “Coal to Cream: A Black Man’s Journey Beyond Color to an Affirmation of Race” and “Last Dance in Havana.”
A Washington Post spokesperson congratulated Robinson on his retirement.
“For 45 years, his reporting and commentary spanned continents and beats, earning countless recognitions, including a Pulitzer Prize. Eugene’s strong perspective and impeccable integrity have regularly shaped our public discourse, cementing his legacy as a leading voice in American journalism,” the rep said.
During his time at the paper, he emerged as one of its most vocal critics of President Trump, calling him a “weak, narcissistic man” in 2017. In February, he wrote that Trump “tramples the Constitution, vandalizes the federal government and trashes our vital international alliances.”
Robinson will continue his role as chief political analyst at NBC News and MSNBC.
His departure comes as Bezos and Lewis are steering the paper toward a more centrist position, to the dismay of many current and former Washington Post journalists, including its ex-executive editor Marty Baron.
Baron had slammed Bezos for blocking the newspaper’s editorial board from endorsing Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
At the time, Bezos defended his decision, saying that endorsing Harris would have added a “perception of bias” to their coverage.
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