Posted on 10/28/2024 5:34:37 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The Amazon billionaire and Post owner said the paper's decision to cease presidential endorsements came from a drive to avoid the "perception of non-independence."
The Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos wrote in an op-ed on Monday that the paper’s choice to cease presidential endorsements was borne from an attempt to regain the trust of its readers.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.”
Post CEO Will Lewis announced in a memo on Thursday that the paper would not endorse a candidate for president — the first time since 1988 — and will cease to do so for future elections. The news came three days after the Los Angeles Times announced similar plans.
Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein Say Washington Post Decision to Not Endorse Presidential Candidate Is "Disappointing" In his editorial on Monday, Bezos wrote that their decision was one way to rebuild the public’s trust, he said had been degraded by “off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources.” He also referenced a Gallup poll reporting that Americans’ trust in the media had fallen below that of Congress.
“Most people believe the media is biased,” Bezos wrote. “Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.”
The Amazon billionaire went on to invoke Eugene Meyer, publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, who also refused to endorse presidential candidates. “He was right,” Bezos wrote.
Bezos also said he wished “we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it,” saying the decision “was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.”
Acknowledging the critics who say Bezos made the decision out of his own business interests, Bezos wrote that readers “can see my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests,” but that “only my own principles can tip the balance from one to the other.”
He concluded, “While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance.”
The Post has seen a mass exodus of subscribers since last week, with 200,000 gone by Monday, NPR reported. Among them was Liz Cheney, who said at a New Yorker event that “when you have Jeff Bezos apparently afraid to issue an endorsement for the only candidate in the race who’s a stable responsible adult because he fears Donald Trump, that tells you why we have to work so hard to make sure that Donald Trump isn’t elected.”
Perception of bias?
That may be true — but non-endorsements are another story entirely…
[“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.”]
I can’t say Jeff Bezos is wrong here.
Though we all KNOW about The Washington CommiePost
You know, Bezos is actually right on this one.
Just shut the paper down. He doesn’t need it.
Or sell it to the Washington Times and let their staff run it - the “Washington Time-Post.”
I want him to keep it and fire all the staff—start again from scratch.
In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.
Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.
Likewise with newspapers. We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.
Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one. Eugene Meyer, publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, thought the same, and he was right. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction. I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.
I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here. Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision. It was made entirely internally. Dave Limp, the chief executive of one of my companies, Blue Origin, met with former president Donald Trump on the day of our announcement. I sighed when I found out, because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision. But the fact is, I didn’t know about the meeting beforehand. Even Limp didn’t know about it in advance; the meeting was scheduled quickly that morning. There is no connection between it and our decision on presidential endorsements, and any suggestion otherwise is false.
When it comes to the appearance of conflict, I am not an ideal owner of The Post. Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials. I once wrote that The Post is a “complexifier” for me. It is, but it turns out I’m also a complexifier for The Post.
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You can see my wealth and business interests as a bulwark against intimidation, or you can see them as a web of conflicting interests. Only my own principles can tip the balance from one to the other. I assure you that my views here are, in fact, principled, and I believe my track record as owner of The Post since 2013 backs this up. You are of course free to make your own determination, but I challenge you to find one instance in those 11 years where I have prevailed upon anyone at The Post in favor of my own interests. It hasn’t happened.
Lack of credibility isn’t unique to The Post. Our brethren newspapers have the same issue. And it’s a problem not only for media, but also for the nation. Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources, which can quickly spread misinformation and deepen divisions. The Washington Post and the New York Times win prizes, but increasingly we talk only to a certain elite. More and more, we talk to ourselves. (It wasn’t always this way — in the 1990s we achieved 80 percent household penetration in the D.C. metro area.)
While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance — overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs — not without a fight. It’s too important. The stakes are too high. Now more than ever the world needs a credible, trusted, independent voice, and where better for that voice to originate than the capital city of the most important country in the world? To win this fight, we will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and some will be new inventions. Criticism will be part and parcel of anything new, of course. This is the way of the world. None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it. I am so grateful to be part of this endeavor. Many of the finest journalists you’ll find anywhere work at The Washington Post, and they work painstakingly every day to get to the truth. They deserve to be believed.
Children throwing a tantrum because they didn’t get their way. Expect a lot of that when Trump wins.
He’s right. in all my years, I have never taken a newspaper’s advice on who to vote for.
Elon’s coattails.
Or sell it to Elon Musk :)
Yes. They’re so convinced we’re going to be suddenly under a Marxist reign.
They don’t know they already have been.
Those who have any kind of business, it is best to keep your mouth shut.
Not really a fan of Jeff Bezos but their explanation on what happened with Alexa giving two different replies when if Trump or Harris would make a good President.
They said that Alexa had not yet been programmed as a Presidential candidate because it was soon after Biden dropped out.
Maybe it’s a credibility thing. BTW just yesterday or today I heard that he wants to hire more conservative editors. For what it’s worth.
Wrong. They sway voters waiting to hear from their favorite media outlet. I’ve heard many people quote their favorite media outlets.
Imagine the shame of not being able to get an endorsement over ‘actual Hitler’
😂😂😂
Good comment, tsowellfan.
You brought up Alexa which I hadn’t thought of. We’re moving to world where many AI “experts” will tell us what we should think. Kind of makes newspaper editorials look dated if the number of AI personas explodes.
I read Elon Musk’s biography on Wikipedia today. It’s flooded with biased information with its utterly Leftist slant.
Hopefully the upcoming election result will be a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
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