I agree with Jeff Bezos on one thing: no one trusts the media anymore.
But ending Kamala Harris' endorsement of the Washington Post days before the election was a colossal mistake, a giant stink bomb dropped on the campaign. And the damage continues to increase.
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A third of its editorial board, including some prominent journalists, have resigned from those positions. NPR says 250,000 people have canceled their subscriptions, 10 percent of its 2.5 million paid subscribers. He couldn't have damaged the Post's reputation more if he had set fire to its Washington headquarters. Good job, sir.
Sure, endorsements from national newspapers don't matter much these days. If Bezos had announced the no-endorsement policy six months ago, no one would have cared.
((Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage) ERIC BARADAT/AFP via Getty Images)
And in his first defense, an opinion column published on the newspaper's website, the billionaire admits as much.
“I wish we had made the change sooner, at a time further removed from the election and the emotions surrounding it,” he writes, attributing it to “inadequate planning” on his part. I've been saying this for days. Not having enough Amazon van drivers is poor planning. This was a fiasco.
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The reason he did this is clear to me: fear of Donald Trump. The two men have had a testy relationship. Bezos believes Trump has a good chance of winning and has a history of holding grudges, even labeling his opponents “the enemy within,” a phrase he defended in his interview with me at Trump Tower.
Why make the boy even more angry? Eliminating Harris' endorsement is a victory for Trump.
Amazon and rocket company Blue Origin do a lot of business with the federal government. Bezos even sued the Trump administration for denying him a contract he felt he should have had. So this is a kind of peace offering.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photographic illustration)
But at what price? The rise in subscription cancellations reflects a deep feeling among readers that the newspaper betrayed them. It's very difficult to recover that. Former Post editor Marty Baron, who covered the Trump administration, accused his former newspaper of “cowardice” and appeared on television yesterday saying such actions destroy trust. Top columnists are taking on the boss in published articles, which the newsroom, to its credit, has also aggressively covered.
It's a similar situation at the Los Angeles Times, where biotech mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong killed a Harris editorial and adopted a non-endorsement stance. Three top opinion editors left the paper entirely. In that case, his daughter was involved and talked about the United States supporting “genocide,” that is, in Gaza. USA Today has now jumped on the no-endorsement bandwagon.
But there is much more interest in the Post, where I worked for three decades, because of the Bezos factor and its status within the Beltway. Even Woodward and Bernstein have spoken out against the measure.
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Bezos and his billions actually deserve credit for saving the Post since he bought it 11 years ago. He poured money into his new acquisition, trying to improve its digital side, and didn't meddle in the newsroom.
I don't care if these and other newspapers endorse it or not. As owner, Bezos has the right to set editorial policy. It is simply clumsiness that has caused this incredible reaction.
Look, for the past two years, the Post's left-leaning editorial pages have told us what they think about every issue under the sun, mostly with anti-Trump attacks. Then, as the election approaches, the owner faints and says, “Oh, no, we couldn't tell you what we think about this: the most important decision a newspaper has to make each year, other than weighing in on war and war.” peace”. . Heavens, no.
Former President Donald Trump, Republican presidential candidate, speaks at a rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City, October 27, 2024. (AP)
Bezos had no problem with the Post endorsing Democrats in 2016 and 2020. He's only now pulling the plug. And if endorsing a White House candidate is such a scandal, why does the newspaper continue to endorse candidates in state and local elections?
There is another thing I agree with Bezos on. While newspaper editorial pages focus on racial and gender diversity, they lack ideological diversity. Bezos wants more conservative voices. That's why he hired Will Lewis, a Briton who previously worked at the Wall Street Journal.
But when Lewis came under scrutiny in the old British hacking scandal, he clashed with then-Post editor Sally Buzbee, who said, of course, we have to cover that controversy. He soon resigned rather than accept a demotion.
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Intentionally or not, Bezos has set the Post back 10 years. What I mean is that in a decade people will still be talking about this.
But all these subscription cancellations are hurting the newspaper they claim to care about, undermining the journalists who work there, especially since the staff was decimated by a recent round of layoffs and takeovers. What many are saying is that if your problem is with Bezos, why not cancel Amazon Prime?
