Would you inherit a rare Stradivarius violin, polish it up for a few years, and then decide to take a hammer to it?

Would you somehow acquire the Hope diamond, set it in a blue velvet case, and then toss the whole thing into the Potomac River?

These incomprehensible acts are not too far afield from what Jeff Bezos is doing these days with the Washington Post, where self-inflicted wounds are wreaking what may be permanent damage to a great newspaper.

I worked on staff at the Post for six years, until 2022, as its media columnist, after admiring the paper for decades; it was an inspiring place to work, and I got to know its readership and its staff from the inside.

It breaks my heart to see what’s happening now, and has been happening for more than a year.

As a major round of newsroom layoffs is threatened – losses that would further weaken an already decimated staff – Bezos is doing what should be unthinkable.

And he is doing so at a time when strong, fact-based journalism could not be more important in America and around the world.

He should reverse course. He can preserve a great news organization and maybe even recover his own legacy as the paper’s steward – a legacy that was looking good for years until he took a strange, Trump-related bad turn.

The turn began in earnest when Bezos – apparently trying to protect his other commercial interests – spiked the draft of an editorial........

© The Guardian