“CBS Mornings” star Gayle King’s upcoming participation in an all-female space flight aboard a Blue Origin rocket ship owned by Washington Post proprietor Jeff Bezos reportedly isn’t sitting well with newsroom staffers at the publication in light of the mogul’s recent overhaul of its opinion section.
King will be alongside pop star Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez this spring when they embark on a six-person mission aboard the New Shepard craft that will take them to the edge of space, where they will be weightless for a few minutes before returning to the earth’s surface.
But at least one Washington Post staffer thinks King, one of the highest paid television personalities who is once said to have earned $13 million annually from CBS, should decline the honor as a way of showing solidarity with fellow journalists who are upset over Bezos’ meddling, according to a report.
The staffer told Oliver Darcy’s Status newsletter that King’s behavior is “kind of gross” given Bezos’ recent actions.
The Post has sought comment from the Washington Post, King and CBS News.
It is unclear if King is paying her own way to fly to space or if someone else is picking up the tab.
Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital flights have varied in pricing over time. In 2021, the first seat was auctioned for $28 million, with proceeds donated to charity.
Subsequent reports suggest that ticket prices have been set at approximately $300,000 per passenger.
However, Blue Origin tailors the price individually to each passenger, so it is hard to define a standard ticket price for New Shepard.
The Post has sought comment from Blue Origin.
The announced space flight coincided with an upheaval at Bezos’ newspaper earlier this week when the billionaire Amazon founder announced that the publication was parting ways with opinion page editor David Shipley.
Shipley, a former speechwriter for Bill Clinton, confirmed his departure after Bezos revealed on his X account that he wanted a new editor who was on board with his plans to revamp the opinion page so that it touted “personal liberties and free markets.”
The change shocked current and former Washington Post staffers who have grown alarmed at Bezos’ increasingly aggressive encroachment into the newspaper’s editorial decisions — felt most acutely weeks before the election when he spiked a drafted endorsement of then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Bezos, who owns Blue Origin and remains Amazon’s largest shareholder despite stepping down as CEO, has denied critics’ claims that he is seeking to curry favor with President Donald Trump in order to safeguard his business interests, which are subject to regulatory scrutiny from the new administration.
