NEW YORK — Billionaire Washington Submit proprietor Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the newspaper’s choice to not endorse a presidential candidate as “proper” and “principled” and pushed again towards any notion that he ordered it as much as shield his enterprise pursuits.
That call, introduced Friday, has reportedly led to tens of hundreds of individuals canceling their subscriptions and protests from journalists with a deep historical past on the newspaper. The Submit’s editorial workers was ready to endorse Democrat Kamala Harris earlier than writer Will Lewis wrote as an alternative that it will be higher for readers to make up their very own minds.
Bezos, in “a word from our proprietor” printed Monday night, mentioned that editorial endorsements create a notion of bias at a time many Individuals don’t consider the media, and do nothing to tip the scales of an election.
“Ending them is a principled choice, and it’s the precise one,” Bezos mentioned.
Bezos wrote that he wished the choice to finish presidential endorsements had been accomplished earlier, “in a second farther from the election and the feelings round it. That was insufficient planning, and never some intentional technique.”
The choice has prompted ripples for days
Bezos’ choice prompted an unprecedented spasm of anger each inside journalism and out of doors it.
NPR reported on Monday that greater than 200,000 individuals have canceled their subscriptions to the newspaper, citing “two individuals on the paper with data of inside issues.” A Submit spokeswoman, Olivia Petersen, wouldn’t touch upon the NPR report.
A lack of subscriptions of that magnitude can be a blow to a storied information outlet that’s already dealing with monetary headwinds. The Submit had greater than 2.5 million subscribers final 12 months, the majority of them digital, making it third behind The New York Instances and The Wall Road Journal in circulation.
Within the choice’s wake, two of the newspaper’s columnists give up, and three of the 9 members of the editorial board resigned their posts. The Submit’s retired former editor, Martin Baron, who was editor when Bezos purchased the paper, had denounced the choice on social media as “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.”
The Submit’s choice got here solely days after the Los Angeles Instances additionally mentioned it will not endorse a presidential candidate, which the newspaper has acknowledged has value them hundreds of subscribers.
Bezos insists concern of enterprise retaliation wasn’t an element
Some critics prompt Bezos, additionally proprietor of Amazon, ordered the non-endorsement to guard his enterprise pursuits, appearing out of concern of retaliation if Donald Trump have been elected. The Submit endorsed Trump’s Democratic rivals in 2016 and 2020, and Trump has usually denounced vital protection by the paper.
In his column, Bezos mentioned individuals can see his wealth and enterprise pursuits as considered one of two issues — a bulwark towards intimidation or an internet of conflicting pursuits. He insisted that his views are principled and that his observe file as Submit proprietor since 2013 backs that up.
“I problem you to search out one occasion in these 11 years the place I’ve prevailed upon anybody on the Submit in favor of my very own pursuits,” he wrote. “It hasn’t occurred.”
He acknowledged that the chief government of considered one of his corporations, the space-exploration outfit Blue Origin, met with Trump final week on the identical day the non-endorsement was introduced.
“I sighed once I came upon, as a result of I knew it will present ammunition to those that want to body this as something aside from a principled choice,” Bezos wrote. “However the truth is, I didn’t know concerning the assembly beforehand.”
He mentioned that whereas he doesn’t and received’t push his personal private pursuits, he wouldn’t permit the Submit to “keep on autopilot and fade into irrelevance.”
“Lots of the most interesting journalists you’ll discover wherever work at The Washington Submit, and so they work painstakingly every single day to get to the reality,” he mentioned. “They should be believed.”
