Jonathan Capehart confirms he’s the latest high-profile voice to leave Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post

Jonathan Capehart, the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and one of the most prominent out LGBTQ+ Black voices in American media, confirmed Tuesday he has accepted a buyout from The Washington Post, ending an 18-year tenure that spanned presidencies, social reckonings, and rising threats to the free press.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

Axios media correspondent Sara Fischer first reported the respected columnist’s departure Monday morning in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Related: MSNBC fires back at disinformation — and makes history — with fearless new show

Capehart confirmed the news Tuesday morning on Facebook with a brief post: “Some personal news, as reported by Axios yesterday…”

His exit comes as The Post undergoes a seismic editorial shift. On February 26, owner Jeff Bezos announced on X that the opinion section would now publish “in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets,” and that “viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.” He said the internet had rendered broad-based editorial pages “obsolete.”

Former executive editor Marty Baron called the move “craven” in a February Zeteo interview. “He’s basically fearful of Trump,” Baron said. “It’s a Post that’s not going to be for all of America.”

Earlier this month, Washington Post CEO Will Lewis issued a memo to staff making the paper’s direction unmistakably clear. He encouraged employees who “do not feel aligned” with the company’s vision to consider leaving, touting the company’s “voluntary separation program.” “If you believe in our next chapter, I’m excited for the work ahead of us,” he wrote.

The Advocate contacted Capehart, who declined to comment. The Washington Post did not respond to The Advocate’s inquiries.

The respected journalist, who stepped down from the editorial board last year after raising concerns about a racially charged op-ed, was its only Black member for years. “Being the lone African American voice around that table was difficult,” he told PBS NewsHour in May.

Related: MSNBC revamps weekend morning show with two prominent Black gay men as cohosts

He leaves with his voice amplified. Capehart remains cohost of MSNBC’s The Weekend, the first national news show anchored by two out gay Black men, alongside Eugene Daniels and Jackie Alemany. His memoir, Yet Here I Am: Lessons From a Black Man’s Search for Home, published on May 20, traces his journey from a closeted teenager to a nationally respected journalist.

“I can’t impart the lessons that I learned without writing about the hard things I had to go through,” he told PBS.

“Their loss," one supporter wrote on Facebook. “Love The Weekend show on MSNBC. Groundbreaking for LGBTQ+ reporting on many levels! So proud of you.”