Billionaires have ruined the media: The Washington Post’s lack of support is a disgusting moral collapse

The shocking decision of Washington Post not make a support in the presidential elections – breaking with a decades-old tradition – is an extremely powerful statement. A non-endorsement says donald trump It is a reasonable choice.

It says: We are so terrified of a Trump presidency that we kneel in advance. The most important thing is that it makes it clear that the owner jeff bezos does not want to lose government affairs in a second Trump administration.

I cannot imagine more inappropriate statements from the newspaper of water gatethe newspaper I spent 12 years working hard for. It’s heartbreaking. It makes me sick to my stomach.

To be clear: every self-respecting journalist, both in the news and opinion fields, should be sounding the alarm about a possible second term for Trump. he poses a threat to democracy and a free press. When it comes to news, that requires brutally honest coverage of the threats Trump presents, without false equations between the two parties, one of which has rejected reality and democratic values. The Post newsroom is unpredictable in that regard. But on the editorial page, this should not have been close (and supposedly it wasn’t until Bezos got involved).

A statement from Post Guild leadership regarding the Washington Post’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate pic.twitter.com/fYU7hkr79K

— Washington Post Guild (@PostGuild) October 25, 2024

The opposite of sounding the alarm is throwing up your hands and saying “well, it’s up to you.”

The oligarchs as owners has been a disaster.

The Post’s decision on Friday comes just days after the Los Angeles Times also decided to forego an official endorsement. This is not a coincidence. Both newspapers are owned by billionaires whose business and personal interests are paramount.

“I guess my fear is that if we chose either one, it would just add to the division,” said billionaire LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong. told Spectrum News this week.

So many comments about him @latimes The editorial board is not providing presidential endorsement this year. Let me clarify how this decision came about.

The Editorial Committee had the opportunity to write a factual analysis of all POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies of EACH…

– Dr. Pat Soon-Shiong (@DrPatSoonShiong) October 23, 2024

This makes it clearer than ever: you can’t be a truly independent news organization if you’re owned by an oligarch.

Bezos’s business interests are so vast that it constitutes a gigantic conflict of interest. like me wrote for Columbia Journalism Review In 2022, the only way for the Post to regain its independence is for Bezos to transfer ownership to a nonprofit.

For a time, many of us in the newspaper business thought that benevolent billionaires were a plausible savior for news organizations like the Post and the LA Times. We were wrong. Just as these oligarchs are a plague on society, they are also a plague on the news business. Now they have ruined – possibly forever – two of our most treasured news organizations.

Will anyone resign?

In the Los Angeles Times, the editorial writeralong with two other members of the editorial board, have resigned – admirably – in protest.

We’ll see what happens in the Post. Robert Kagan, whose title was editor-at-large but who was not a member of the editorial board, has so far resigned. But I’m not optimistic that we’ll see similar acts of heroism there, let alone at the top. Bezos intentionally hired lickspittles as an editor and editorial editor. The editor installed by Bezos, a former Murdoch henchman with moral problems and conservative mr named Will Lewis, took credit for Friday’s decision, claiming that this destruction of decades of precedent is a declaration of independence. Lewis wrote:

We recognize that this will be interpreted in a variety of ways, including a tacit endorsement of one candidate, a condemnation of another, or an abdication of responsibility. That’s inevitable.

He was right about that. Then he continued:

We don’t see it that way. We consider him consistent with the values ​​that the Post has always defended and what we expect from a leader: character and courage in the service of the American ethic, reverence for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects.

But the values ​​the Post has always stood for include truth-telling, love of democracy, and speaking truth to power. Seeking accountability in Washington has been his signature brand since Watergate. And here he allows Trump to escape responsibility, one more time.

The editorial writer, David ShipleyHe was installed by Bezos after demonstrating his loyalty to another oligarch, Mike Bloomberg, whose views he dutifully reflected in his editorials. In fact, Shipley, along with his deputy Tim O’Brien, even left their jobs at Bloomberg Opinion to work (briefly) on their boss’s disastrous presidential campaign. So Shipley isn’t going to hesitate, especially after telling disgruntled editorial staff that he “owned” the decision on Friday. according to NPR.

I fear neither will other board members, including Charles Lane, Stephen Stromberg, Mary Duenwald, David E. Hoffman, James Hohmann, Mili Mitra, Eduardo Porter, Keith B. Richburg, and Molly Roberts. I hope I am proven wrong.

Anticipatory obedience is the point

An overarching theme here is that the actions taken by the Post and the LA Times reflect what Timothy Snyder, the author of “On Tyranny,” calls “anticipatory obedience.” As Snyder wrote in his book:

Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, people think in advance what a more repressive government will want and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is showing power what he can do.

The lack of endorsement from the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times would certainly seem to fit the bill.

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Frankly, so would the New York Times’ decision to withhold its own scoop about Trump’s former chief of staff, Marine Gen. John Kelly, which revealed that Trump was a fascist who admired Hitler. I can’t think of a good reason why they didn’t publish it on the cover, can you? Or why have they been so apathetic in their coverage of Trump’s threats to attack the military against the “enemy within”?

As former editor of the Washington Post Marty Baron Put it on Twitter: “This is cowardice.”

About political support

This is cowardice, whose victim is democracy. @realdonaldtrump You will see this as an invitation to further intimidate the owner. @jeffbezos (and others). Disturbing lack of character in an institution famous for bravery.

– Marty Baron (@PostBaron) October 25, 2024

Colombian journalism professor Bill Grueskin wrote:

This is what happens with these non-LAT/WPost endorsements. They are not important politically; few votes would be influenced. But the billionaire owners are (intentionally or not) sending a signal to newsrooms: prepare to adapt your coverage to the Trump regime.

And that is the even bigger fear: that these institutions are not only succumbing to authoritarianism, but driving it.

Woe to us!