We're still not over this, and probably never will be. Betrayals cut deep.
Jonathan Last concludes his essay on Washington Post's Jeff Bezos' decision to not endorse Kamala Harris, Bezos joining the oligarch coalition of cowards who believe their wealth and position are threatened if they don't show Trump obedience:
... These guys can hear the music. They’ve seen the sides being chosen: Elon Musk and Peter Theil assembling with Trump’s gangster government in waiting. They see Mark Zuckerberg praising Trump as a “badass.” And now they see Bezos getting in line, too.
What’s remarkable is that Trump didn’t have to arrest Bezos to secure his compliance. Trump didn’t even have to win the election. Just the fact that he has an even-money chance to become president was threat enough.
Or maybe that’s not remarkable. One of Timothy Snyder’s rules for resisting authoritarians is that “most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given.” People surrender preemptively much more often than you might expect.
Two weeks ago, Ian Bassin and Maximillian Potter wrote what might be the most prophetic essay of the year. They warned about “anticipatory obedience” in the media.
Seventeen days later, Bezos made his demonstration.
In case you needed reminding: The “guardrails” aren’t guardrails. They’re people.
And they’re already collapsing. Before a single state has been called.
Reaction from Post writers and former luminaries here and here.
As we said yesterday, if ever there was a time to cancel a subscription, this is it.
And if ever there was a time to vote, this is it.
BONUS: The Philadelphia Inquirer won't be cowed! Neither will The New Yorker --
Proud to work for the @NewYorker which unlike the @WashingtonPost knows who to endorse: Kamala Harris for President https://t.co/u2tauRkkIW
— Jane Mayer (@JaneMayerNYer) October 25, 2024
BONUS II: Justin Peters has a good read on this.
BONUS III: WaPo columnists' statement here.
UPDATE: Former WaPo editor-at-large Kagan makes an expolosive claim --
The Washington Post’s outgoing editor-at-large and longtime columnist has made explosive claims that its owner Jeff Bezos struck a deal with Donald Trump in order to kill the newspaper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Robert Kagan, who resigned from his position on Friday after more than two decades at the publication, told the Daily Beast that Trump’s meeting with executives of Bezos’ Blue Origin space company the same day that the Amazon founder had killed a plan to support Harris was proof of the backroom deal.
“Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do, and then met with the Blue Origin people,” he said on Saturday. “Which tells us that there was an actual deal made, meaning that Bezos communicated, or through his people, communicated directly with Trump, and they set up this quid pro quo.” [snip]
According to Kagan, “all the facts” lead in the direction of Bezos attempting to transform the Post into something akin to The Wall Street Journal, a center right “anti-anti-Trump editorial slant,” with Lewis by his side.
“Some journalists will stick around for that. Some will leave. If they leave, they can be replaced,” he said.
(Cartoon: Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press; more later in Today's Cartoons)
2 comments:
Ain't it amazing how two of the world's wealthiest and most accomplished men, Jeff Bezos @ Washington Post and, especially, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong @ LA Times, can rationalize their decisions and think the rest of us will mindlessly buy that bullshit?! Bezos wants to be above it all by not endorsing a candidate this year and never again. That might have seemed principled one or two years ago; 11 days from the election not so much! And, Dr. Soon-Shiong, who began his wealth being a brilliant surgeon and medical/pharmaceutical innovator, appears a bit less open and is being led around by his daughter Nika (who is apparently always sticking her nose into editorial business where it doesn't belong). Nika, especially, claims the LA Times must not endorse Kamala Harris' genocide in Gaza! Oh, really?! Better to give a pocket endorsement to Trump/Kushner who want to finish the leveling of Gaza and the Palestinian diaspora so they can build luxury resort properties! Either way both these men are now victims of the "Streisand Effect." If these men, and by extension Trump, had just let the Harris endorsements stand, fewer people in the country would have paid attention. Now, there are negative spotlights on them and the story is a bigger part of the news cycle! Rich doesn't equal smart!!
Cleora -- Yes! Bezos has managed over a 24-hour news cycle to permanently beclown the Post's slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness." As many have pointed out, it's not that the decision to not endorse will sway voters at this point, it's that it's demonstrated the "anticipatory obedience" of Bezos, Soon-Shiong and others to the fascist threat of Trump at a time when courage must be the coin of journalism.
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