When Donald Graham sold his family’s newspaper to Jeff Bezos in 2013, it was to save the WaPo from further budget cuts. The Grahams *are* rich but not rich enough to invest what was needed in the paper owned by the Meyer-Graham family for 80 years.

Initially, things went well under Bezos’ ownership. He kept his word about plowing money into the business and not interfering with editorial decisions. There were some warning signs when the Insult Comedian was first elected but according to then executive editor Martin Baron:

“I led the newsroom at the time Bezos bought the Post. For a long while, he fulfilled his promise to the paper and its readers, exceeding my expectations. Then he faltered badly.

Now we know that Bezos is no Katharine Graham. It has been sad and unnerving to watch Bezos fall so terribly short of her standard as he confronts the return of Donald Trump to the White House. It’s been infuriating to observe the damage he has inflicted in recent months on the reputation of a newspaper whose investigative reporting has served as a bulwark against Trump’s most transgressive impulses.”

The bleeding continued this week with the resignation of WaPo lifer Ruth Marcus. WaPo CEO and former Murdoch man Will Lewis killed a column Marcus wrote criticizing Bezos’ inane statement about changing the editorial page’s focus to “personal liberties and free markets.” Management refused to meet with Marcus who had been at the paper for 41 years. She felt she had no choice but to resign. Principled resignations are in style thanks to the Kaiser of Chaos.

I didn’t always agree with Ruth Marcus, but I respected her voice, especially when she wrote about the Supreme Court. She predicted the radicalization of the Court upon the arrival of the Trump nominees. Nailed it. Besides, how can I dislike a lapsed lawyer turned pundit?

Ever since ownership spiked the endorsement of Kamala Harris last fall, it’s been hemorrhaging subscribers. Subsequently, Bezos opted to join the billionaire boys club of Trump sycophants. Bezos put his own self-interest ahead of that of his paper, and more importantly, the country. He’s always resembled Superman villain Lex Luthor, now he acts like him. The malakatude, it burns.

Repeat after me: Appeasement never works.

I’ve wanted to write about the Marcus resignation since it happened. I’m glad I resisted the temptation to do a hot take because she has written a piece for The New Yorker explaining her exit and sharing the spiked column with the world. The column is as mild and moderate as Ms. Marcus herself.

I’ll let Ruth Marcus speak for herself:

“I stayed until I no longer could—until the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, issued an edict that the Post’s opinion offerings would henceforth concentrate on the twin pillars of “personal liberties and free markets,” and, even more worrisome, that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” I stayed until the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, killed a column I filed last week expressing my disagreement with this new direction. Lewis refused my request to meet. (You can read the column in full below, but—spoiler alert—if you’re craving red meat, brace for tofu. I wrote the piece in the hope of getting it published and registering a point, not to embarrass or provoke the paper’s management.)

Is it possible to love an institution the way you love a person, fiercely and without reservation? For me, and for many other longtime staff reporters and editors, that is the way we have felt about the Post.”

Courage is in short supply in the Washington establishment. Instead, cowering is in fashion. Ruth Marcus’ resignation is proof positive that not everything sucks. Jeff Bezos certainly does.

The last word goes to Cheap Trick. It’s dedicated to Jeff Bezos: