Washington Post op-ed writer quits after paper refuses to publish piece critical of Bezos

Journalist Ruth Marcus, who has worked for the Washington Post since 1984, has stood down after a row over the paper refusing to run an opinion piece by her that was critical of owner Jeff Bezos.

“It breaks my heart to conclude that I must leave,” Marcus wrote in a resignation letter. Marcus said that the Post's publisher, Will Lewis, declined to run her column, which she described as “respectfully dissenting” from Bezos' edict. It was the first time in nearly 20 years of writing columns that she's had one killed, she said.

The decision “underscores that the traditional freedom of columnists to select the topics they wish to address and say what they think has been dangerously eroded,” she wrote.