Photo by Dan Macy

Photo by Dan Macy

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of Amazon, will meet with the staff of the Washington Post tomorrow afternoon to announce how he plans to usher in a new “golden era” at the paper he plans to purchase.* Hopefully, he will begin by firing Richard Cohen.

In an interview with his latest acquisition, Bezos said he will bring his “basic approach” from operating Amazon to the paper.

“We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient,” he said. “If you replace ‘customer’ with ‘reader,’ that approach, that point of view, can be successful at The Post, too.”

To accomplish number one, Bezos should fire columnist Richard Cohen immediately. The City Paper agrees.

In a piece titled “Miley Cyrus, Steubenville and teen culture run amok” published this weekend, Cohen tried to tie together Miley Cyrus’ recent Video Music Awards appearance with the Steubenville Rape with teen culture. It’s even worse than it sounds.

After shaming Cyrus for “twerking,” Cohen moves to Steubenville Rape case: “The first thing you should know about the so-called Steubenville Rape is that this was not a rape involving intercourse.” He also says the victim was “manhandled” and “sexually mistreated.”

He concludes, we guess, that Miley Cyrus is kind of responsible for what happened in Steubenville. Or something? It’s really not clear what his point is.

But let me also suggest that acts such as hers not only objectify women but debase them. They encourage a teenage culture that has set the women’s movement back on its heels. What is being celebrated is not sexuality but sexual exploitation, a mean casualness that deprives intimacy of all intimacy. Cyrus taught me a word. Now let me teach her one: She’s a twerk.

Fred Hiatt, the Post’s editorial page editor, declined to comment on the column to DCist.

This isn’t even the first horrible opinion piece about rape published by the Washington Post in recent days. Last week, the Post published an op-ed by Dupont Circle artist Betsy Karasik that Media Matters called “pro-statutory rape.”

Like many people, DCist would love to see another “golden era” at the Post. But that’s never going to happen, Mr. Bezos, while Cohen is on your staff.

Filed Under: jeff bezos, richard cohen, washington post,