Friday 13th of December 2024

several editors resigned......

The Washington Post has abandoned its decades-long tradition of endorsing a US presidential candidate to earn back the trust of the American public, the newspaper’s owner, Jeff Bezos, has said. The billionaire explained his reasoning in an op-ed published by the Post on Monday after facing a backlash from current and former staff. 

The newspaper had endorsed candidates since 1976, but announced the suspension of the practice on Friday, prompting several editors to resign. The Post’s editorial board endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. According to CNN, the newspaper’s staffers had drafted an endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris ahead of the election next month, but it was ultimately not approved by the management. 

Bezos began his op-ed by citing a recent Gallup poll, which found that nearly 70% of Americans have little or no trust in the media. “Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working,” the entrepreneur wrote, adding that “most people believe the media is biased.” 

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” he continued. “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.”

The founder of Amazon and aerospace manufacturer Blue Origin admitted that the decision to drop endorsements so close to Election Day on November 5 was the result of “inadequate planning.” At the same time, he insisted that neither campaign had affected his decision-making, and that the move to abandon endorsements was not connected to last week’s meeting between Republican candidate Donald Trump and top Blue Origin executives in Austin, Texas. 

A total of 21 of the Post’s opinion columnists signed a statement describing the non-endorsement as “a terrible mistake.” They argued that “this isn’t the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution.” 

Three of the newspaper’s ten-person editorial board have since stepped down. More than 200,000 people – or about 8% of the Post’s paid subscribers – had canceled their digital subscription by midday on Monday, according to NPR. The decision to end endorsements was criticized by many prominent journalists, including the Post’s former longtime executive editor Marty Baron. 

Last month, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong announced that the newspaper would also not be making presidential endorsements. The move faced a similar backlash, with editorials editor Mariel Garza resigning in protest.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has blasted “the lying media” for what he said was a long history of unfair coverage of him and his time in office. The Harris campaign and allies have similarly accused pro-Trump media outlets of amplifying “disinformation.”

https://www.rt.com/news/606657-bezos-explain-wapo-non-endorsement/

 

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cancelled subscriptions....

More than 200,000 people have canceled their subscriptions to the Washington Post after the newspaper’s owner, Amazon tycoon Jeff Bezos, canceled its tradition of endorsing presidential candidates, NPR has reported.

The Washington Post has endorsed presidential candidates since 1976, all of them Democrats. However, the newspaper announced on Friday that it would no longer do so, making Vice President Kamala Harris the first Democrat in almost 50 years to miss out on the Post’s backing.

The decision has apparently angered the Post’s liberal readers, with 200,000 canceling their digital subscriptions by Monday afternoon, according to NPR. This number, which accounts for around 8% of the paper’s paid subscribers, continued to grow in the hours that followed, NPR reported, citing two anonymous sources at the Washington Post.

Among those who canceled their subscriptions were Oscar-nominated actor Jeffrey Wright and ‘The West Wing’ actor Bradley Whitford.

Three of the newspaper’s ten-person editorial board have since stepped down, while 21 of the Post’s opinion columnists signed a statement describing the non-endorsement as “a terrible mistake.” They argued that “this isn’t the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution.”

In an op-ed on Monday, Bezos explained that “presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales in an election,”and “create a perception of bias.” Eliminating them will help restore public trust in the media, he claimed, pointing out that journalists are now viewed by the American public as less trustworthy than members of Congress.

Last month, Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong announced that the newspaper would also not be making presidential endorsements, while USA Today said on Monday that it would hold off on backing either Harris or former President Donald Trump. The LA Times had backed Democrats in every election since it resumed its policy of endorsements in 2008, while USA Today backed President Joe Biden in 2020 and called Trump “unfit for the presidency” in 2016.

The New York Times, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, Las Vegas Sun, and the New Yorker have all endorsed Harris, while Trump is currently backed by the New York Post, Washington Times, and Las Vegas Review-Journal.

https://www.rt.com/news/606701-washington-post-loses-subscribers/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

“It’s hard to do cartoons without bias…”

         Gus Leonisky