Is The Washington Post Becoming Libertarian?

Earlier this year, The Washington Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, announced that the opinions section of his paper would be "writing every day in support and defense of…personal liberties and free markets." Today's guest is the person Bezos hired to execute that mission.

He's Adam O'Neal, a 33-year-old Southern California native whose resume includes stints at The Economist, The Dispatch, The Wall Street Journal, Real Clear Politics, and covering the Vatican for Rome Reports. O'Neal tells Gillespie his goal is to build a nonpartisan editorial section rooted in core American values of free expression, free enterprise, and limited government. That means taking on MAGA and the Trump administration, insurgent Democratic Socialists, and censors and statists in both parties. "It's small L libertarian…classical liberal," says O'Neal of the section he's building. "It's non-partisan and free markets and personal liberties are the North Star."

O'Neal talks about the challenges in bringing a classical liberal sensibility to mostly left-of-center readers, how growing up in California informs his thinking, what he thinks of Pope Francis' and his American successor Pope Leo's attitudes toward capitalism, and why newspapers shouldn't endorse candidates.

https://reason.com/podcast/2025/11/19/is-the-washington-post-becoming-libertarian/
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0:00—Introduction
1:39—Writing in defense of free markets and personal liberties
7:40—Government threats to free speech
14:01—The Washington Post's editorial decisions
18:59—The state of free markets in America
21:52—Is the opinion section becoming libertarian?
34:09—O'Neal's origin story
40:46—Pope Francis and capitalism
45:17—Experiences at The Dispatch and The Economist
52:59—The culture of The Washington Post's opinions team
55:38—Generational change in politics and culture
59:04—The Washington Post ends candidate endorsements

Producer: Paul Alexander
Audio Mixer: Ian Keyser
Illustration: Eddie Marshall