Wapo will not endorse a candidate

[simpsongal]

www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/10/25/washington-post-endorsement-president/

Wow....


“This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty. Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners),” former Post executive editor Martin Baron, who led the paper while Trump was president, said in a text message to The Post. “History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

[penguingrrl]

Gotta be honest, I’m getting very nervous that they know a fascist regime is inevitable and are too afraid to speak against it.

[stuffandthings]

They’re afraid of Trump. He has said he will punish any news outlet that said anything negative about him if he’s elected, and they 100% believe him.

[havarti]

Democracy dies in the dark…


Chicken shits.

[candreco]

For once I'm actually enjoying the comments section at least? Between this and Theissen's op ed from today calling Harris "dishonest, desperate and hypocritical" (posted literally next to another one calling out the double standard the media has for Harris and Trump, no less!) they can go screw themselves. DH pays for this subscription, but they're not getting any more clicks from me.

[anonymous]

This is so cowardly.

[mrsukyankee]

Connie Schultz did a huge call out of this - basically called them cowards. And she has a HUGE following. Many are declaring they are cancelling their subscriptions due to this.

[cous0226]

As per usual, they all bow down cuz they are afraid of him.

They would never choose this route if DT wasn’t running.

[onomatopoeia]

"The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates."

Wow. This year, of all years? THIS YEAR? I honestly thought they'd already endorsed Harris because, well, obviously. This is crazy.

[picksthemusic]

Effing cowards.

[underwaterrhymes]

My WaPo and The Atlantic were my remaining subscriptions.

Canceled WaPo today. It’s not due for renewal until February, but the automatic renewal is off.

[sonrisa]

The billionaires are really going for the jugular this season.

[spinnaker5]

Canceled my subscription, and will probably start subscribing to the Guardian (the UK one). 

[kellady]

I just cancelled too.  So discouraging.  

[SmartyCat]

I just cancelled as well and left my comment.

[tiki]

Our subscription used to renew in early Nov. Not so much now.

[neverfstop]

ya'll ready to cancel your amazon subscriptions too??

"The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — according to the same sources."

[fortnightlily]

I canceled my subscription as well.

[neverfstop]

FWIW- I do think the decision is shitty & cowardly. I feel bad for all the great journalist and employees that work there. It just seems like such a silly thing. Do newspaper endorsements even matter?? Perhaps they shouldn't' be doing in the first place, but it's a hell of a time (election/nominee) to stop on. I'm curious to hear more of the back story & how much the Ed board was told they'd have independence from Bezos. Why not let them endorse? b/c Trump would be mad & punish Bezos/Amazon???

[tiki]

Oct 25, 2024 14:28:11 GMT -5 neverfstop said:

ya'll ready to cancel your amazon subscriptions too??

"The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — according to the same sources."

I do want to reduce our amazon dependency, but H convinced me that this particular incident is on William Lewis. He's the publisher, he's responsible, and he chose to legitimize the position. 

[fernweh]

Oct 25, 2024 14:33:56 GMT -5 neverfstop said:

FWIW- I do think the decision is shitty & cowardly. I feel bad for all the great journalist and employees that work there. It just seems like such a silly thing. Do newspaper endorsements even matter?? Perhaps they shouldn't' be doing in the first place, but it's a hell of a time (election/nominee) to stop on. I'm curious to hear more of the back story & how much the Ed board was told they'd have independence from Bezos. Why not let them endorse? b/c Trump would be mad & punish Bezos/Amazon???

I agree - don’t stop on this election but news sources are supposed to be unbiased and should have never started endorsing in the 1st place (says the person who went to school for journalism but never worked a day in the field).

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 25, 2024 14:34:41 GMT -5 tiki said:

Oct 25, 2024 14:28:11 GMT -5 neverfstop said:

ya'll ready to cancel your amazon subscriptions too??

"The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — according to the same sources."

I do want to reduce our amazon dependency, but H convinced me that this particular incident is on William Lewis. He's the publisher, he's responsible, and he chose to legitimize the position. 

Yes, but this reeks of Bezos more to me.

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 25, 2024 12:43:27 GMT -5 penguingrrl said:

Gotta be honest, I’m getting very nervous that they know a fascist regime is inevitable and are too afraid to speak against it.

This is my fear too.

PDQ:

I work in the same organization as someone married to a pretty powerful Washington figure. Around this time for the 2016 election, they were expressing deep concerns that Trump would be elected. This is when we all just assumed HRC had it in the bag, so I brushed it off and then look what happened. People and outlets in Washington have access to insight and intel about elections that none of us will see or even hear about.

Or, Bezos is just a fascist too. Very plausible.

[redheadbaker]

Oct 25, 2024 14:28:11 GMT -5 neverfstop said:

ya'll ready to cancel your amazon subscriptions too??

"The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — according to the same sources."

Already did. 

[neverfstop]

Oct 25, 2024 14:38:19 GMT -5 fernweh said:

Oct 25, 2024 14:33:56 GMT -5 neverfstop said:

FWIW- I do think the decision is shitty & cowardly. I feel bad for all the great journalist and employees that work there. It just seems like such a silly thing. Do newspaper endorsements even matter?? Perhaps they shouldn't' be doing in the first place, but it's a hell of a time (election/nominee) to stop on. I'm curious to hear more of the back story & how much the Ed board was told they'd have independence from Bezos. Why not let them endorse? b/c Trump would be mad & punish Bezos/Amazon???

I agree - don’t stop on this election but news sources are supposed to be unbiased and should have never started endorsing in the 1st place (says the person who went to school for journalism but never worked a day in the field).

Yes and no.  Most papers have an opinion department and an editorial section. Maybe that and the entertainment-ification of news as well as the capitalism of news (needing it to be the most profitable) has lead us here, which is a shitty place to be.

[tiki]

Velar Fricative, not at all doubting it came down from Bezos to Lewis, and the root cause being increasing control of our news sources and economy by the same handful of rich dudes.

[neverfstop]

[Gato]

Oct 25, 2024 14:28:11 GMT -5 neverfstop said:

ya'll ready to cancel your amazon subscriptions too??

"The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — according to the same sources."

I did a long time ago and it hasn’t been so bad. I still use Amazon for free research but when I find something I want, I buy it somewhere else.

Zappos, on the other hand, has been hard for me to quit. But I’m trying; fuck Bezos!

[aurora]

I can see a bigger discussion to be had about no opinions and editorials at all.

But choosing right now to end decades of endorsements is absolutely spineless and makes their motto a farce.

[weetabix]

Ugh. I canceled WaPo. Amazon is harder because my elderly parents use my account for various staples as shopping in person is hard for mobility reasons. I need to cut off my Prime Video habit 😩

Also, I'm interested if there will ever be information made public re how many people canceled their WaPo accounts today. Anecdotal, obviously, but I'm seeing tons of comments to that effect. Of course, that's unlikely to have any impact in making Bezos reconsider since I'm sure his desire not to make Trump mad exceeds any concerns about a hit to WaPo's bottom line.