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I agree with Jeff Bezos on one factor: Nobody trusts the media anymore.
But killing the Washington Post’s Kamala Harris endorsement days earlier than the election was a colossal blunder, a large stink bomb tossed into the marketing campaign. And the harm simply retains escalating.
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One-third of his editorial board, together with some distinguished journalists, have resigned from these positions. NPR says 250,000 folks have canceled their subscriptions, 10 % of its 2.5 million paid subscribers. He couldn’t have wounded the Post’s popularity extra if he had set the Washington headquarters afire. Nice work, sir.
Sure, nationwide newspaper endorsements don’t matter a lot today. If Bezos had introduced the no-endorsement coverage six months in the past, no person would have cared.
((Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage) ERIC BARADAT/AFP through Getty Images)
And in his first protection, an opinion column posted on the paper’s web site, the billionaire admits as a lot.
“I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it,” he writes, chalking it as much as “inadequate planning” on his half. I’ve been saying this for days. Not having sufficient Amazon van drivers is insufficient planning. This was a fiasco.
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The cause he did that is clear to me: concern of Donald Trump. The two males have had a testy relationship. Bezos figures Trump has shot at profitable and historical past of bearing grudges, even labeling opponents “the enemy within,” a phrase he defended in his Trump Tower interview with me.
Why antagonize the man additional? Killing the Harris endorsement is a win for Trump.
Amazon and the Blue Origin rocket firm do lots of enterprise with the federal authorities. Bezos even sued the Trump administration for denying a contract he felt he ought to have had. So that is type of a peace providing.
Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. (Photo illustration)
But at what worth? The surge in subscription cancelations mirror a deep feeling amongst readers that the paper betrayed them. It’s very laborious to earn that again. Former Post editor Marty Baron, who coated the Trump administration, has accused his outdated paper of “spinelessness” and was on TV yesterday, saying such actions destroy belief. Top columnists are taking over the boss in revealed items, which the newsroom, to its credit score, has additionally coated aggressively.
It’s the same state of affairs on the Los Angeles Times, the place biotech mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong killed a Harris editorial and adopted a no-endorsement stance. Three high opinion editors give up the paper outright. In that case, his daughter was concerned and spoke of the U.S. backing “genocide,” that means in Gaza. USA Today has now jumped on the no-endorsement bandwagon.
But there’s way more curiosity in the Post, the place I labored for 3 many years, due to the Bezos issue and its inside-the-Beltway standing. Even Woodward and Bernstein have spoken out against the transfer.
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Bezos and his billions truly deserve credit score for saving the Post since shopping for it 11 years in the past. He poured cash into his new acquisition, making an attempt to enhance its digital facet, and didn’t meddle with the newsroom.
I don’t care if these and different papers endorse or not. As the proprietor, Bezos has the fitting to set editorial coverage. It’s simply the bungling that has triggered this unimaginable backlash.
Look, for the previous two years, the Post’s left-leaning editorial pages have advised us what they assume on each problem below the solar, principally with anti-Trump assaults. Then, with the election approaching, the proprietor has a fainting spell and says oh no, we couldn’t probably let you know what we take into consideration this – an important resolution a newspaper has to make yearly, wanting opining on battle and peace. Heavens, no.
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, speaks at a rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, on Oct. 27, 2024 (AP )
Bezos had no drawback with the Post endorsing Democrats in 2016 and 2020. Only now does he pull the plug on that. And if backing a White House contender is such an outrage, why does the paper proceed to make endorsements in state and native races?
There’s one different factor on which I agree with Bezos. While newspaper editorial pages are centered on racial and gender range, they lack ideological range. Bezos desires extra conservative voices. That’s why he introduced in Will Lewis, a Brit who beforehand labored on the Wall Street Journal.
But when Lewis was below scrutiny in the outdated British hacking scandal, he clashed with then-Post editor Sally Buzbee, who stated in fact we now have to cowl that controversy. She quickly resigned slightly than settle for a demotion.
Intentionally or in any other case, Bezos has set the Post again 10 years. What I imply is {that a} decade from now, folks will nonetheless be speaking about this.
But all these subscription cancellations are hurting the paper that they profess to care about, undermining the journalists who work there, particularly for the reason that employees was decimated by a current spherical of layoffs and buyouts. What many are saying is that in case your beef is with Bezos, why not cancel Amazon Prime as a substitute?
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