THE opinion editor of The Washington Post is leaving his job one day after the editorial board – which is closely controlled by the billionaire Amazon owner Jeff Bezos – published a wildly incorrect claim about Scotland’s tax system.
Adam O'Neal, a correspondent from The Economist who was hired as opinion editor last year, told his team in an internal memo that he would be leaving the right-wing US newspaper after "a remarkable year".
It comes after a “leader” article expressing its own opinions, claimed the Scottish Government's changes to the top rate of income tax had cost the country “somewhere between £15 billion and £30 billion in revenue after increasing the top tax rate to 48 per cent”.
This figure was wildly inflated, as Deputy First Minister Jenny Gilruth confirmed earlier in July that a total of £18.6bn of Scottish Income Tax was raised in the 2024-25 financial year.
Dan Neidle, the tax analyst whose work the Washington Post referenced, pointed out the obvious error in the newspaper’s claim, to which the newspaper then apologised for.
O'Neal did not reference or address the error in his statement.
Reflecting on the year, he said: "Our work has became more relevant, accessible and consequential.
"We regularly publish world-class journalism that find the audience where it is. This includes agenda-setting columns; news-breaking op-eds; highly influential editorials; and social media content that reaches millions of new people."
He later thanked Bezos – one of the richest men in the world who bought it for $250m in 2013, as well as the wider team.
He concluded: "While this was not an easy decision, I am leaving proud of how far the opinion section has come and optimistic that its best days lie ahead."
O'Neal had been brought in to replace David Shipley after he resigned as opinion editor in response to Bezos's command that the paper would not be allowed to publish any opinion columns which are not “in support and defence of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets”.
More than 75,000 readers of the newspaper cancelled their subscriptions within 48 hours of the change.
Jeff Stein, the Washington Post’s chief economics reporter, said that Bezos was guilty of “massive encroachment” by making “clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated”.
