"Democracy Dies In Darkness." That's the official slogan under the banner of the Washington Post, owned by billionaire Amazon owner Jeff Bezos and published by former Rupert Murdoch executive Will Lewis. It's also utter bullshit. From the Columbia Journalism Review:
On Friday, the Washington Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced that the paper would no longer make endorsements for president—after its journalists had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision was made by Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner.
Over a period of several weeks, a Post staffer told me, two Post board members, Charles Lane and Stephen W. Stromberg, had worked on drafts of a Harris endorsement. (Neither was contacted for this article.) “Normally we’d have had a meeting, review a draft, make suggestions, do editing,” the staffer told me. Editorial writers started to feel angsty a few weeks ago, per the staffer; the process stalled. Around a week ago, editorial page editor David Shipley told the editorial board that the endorsement was on track, adding that “this is obviously something our owner has an interest in.”
“We thought we were dickering over language—not over whether there would be an endorsement,” the Post staffer said. So journalists at the Post, in both the news and opinion departments, were stunned Friday after Shipley told the editorial board at a meeting that it would not take a position after all. This represents the first time the Post has sat out a presidential endorsement since 1988.
The meeting was quickly followed by an opinion essay from publisher Lewis, who wrote, “We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way.” In a news story, the Post made clear that the decision came from Bezos. [snip]
The decisions at both newspapers have angered staff members, who point out that both papers have published editorials for more than nine years now describing the threats Donald Trump poses to American democracy; his constant stream of falsehoods; his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol; his public policies; and his promises to be a dictator—for one day, at least—if elected. [snip]
Ian Bassin, a democracy expert, calls these moves “anticipatory obedience”: fear by owners that if Trump wins he could take vengeance on companies that cross him. They noted that the leadership at CNN and the Post changed after the Trump administration tried to block the takeover of CNN’s parent company and tried to deny a cloud computing contract for Amazon, Bezos’s company...
What a cowardly, shameful abdication of every principle and value this paper has purportedly stood for for decades. In an election in which the very existence of American democracy is at stake, with a fascist running to become its unbridled autocrat (and who calls journalists "enemies of the people"), a newspaper that has had the gall to dub itself as a beacon of democracy runs for the shadows. "Democracy Dies In Darkness" my ass.
If you have a Washington Post subscription, this would be an excellent time to cancel it.
UPDATE: Several notables, including Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein, former editor executive editor Marty Baron, and editor-at-large Robert Kagan (who resigned in protest from the Post), denounced the cowardly decision not to endorse Harris.
The Washington Post Guild issued this statement:
A statement from Post Guild leadership on the Washington Post's decision to not endorse a presidential candidate pic.twitter.com/fYU7hkr79K
— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) October 25, 2024
UPDATE 2: Post columnists Ruth Marcus, Karen Tumulty, Eugene Robinson, Perry Bacon Jr., and cartoonist Ann Telnaes have joined the chorus condemning the decision.
(Image: Billionaire Bezos)
