‘Collision of Power’ explains the journalism issues of Trump era

This book “Collision of power” presents an impassioned argument for objective journalism. Making an engrossing debut, the author Martin Baron recounts in candid detail his more than eight-year tenure as executive editor of the Washington Post which Jeff Bezos purchased just months after he assumed his position.

Jeff Bezos’ advent as owner immediately generated unease among the staff who wondered what his interest was in buying a major newspaper and whether he intended to control editorial content. The author realized quickly, though, that Bezos was making a genuine commitment to invest in the Washington Post’s success.

I’ve been working on this book since my retirement from @washingtonpost at the end of February 2021. Here’s a look at the cover. pic.twitter.com/3Ahy8nVReN

— Marty Baron (@PostBaron) May 8, 2023

“The era of ceaseless cutbacks had come to a halt,” he writes. Although focused on metrics and finances, Bezos staunchly supported editorial independence and journalistic integrity, a stance that put him on a collision course with Donald Trump, who expected Bezos to rein in the Post’s coverage of him and his administration.

When that did not happen, he unleashed the “raw abuse of power” for which he was notorious. Among an apparently limitless list of Trump’s grievances, “atop them all was the press, and atop the press was The Post.” Bezos, though, proved unflappable.

When he met with staff “he had read and absorbed every memo to the slightest detail.” He discovered, and nurtured, the dedication that shaped the newspaper’s reputation.

Offering his editor’s-eye view of decision–making challenges, the author chronicles nearly a decade of history marked by sensitive, controversial stories such as Edward Snowden’s revelations of government surveillance; investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails; Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against Brett Kavanaugh; the murder of contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi; George Floyd’s killing, which incited considerable unrest at the paper over issues of diversity and the consequences of Trump’s defeat in 2020.

His memoir is testimony to the efforts of a devoted staff whose commitment is reflected in a motto created by the paper just one month into Trump’s presidency: “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”