Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos wants conservative writers

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has reportedly given the paper a mandate to add more conservative voices to its opinion section — even as he remains silent on the paper’s decision not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election.

Bezos – the second richest person in the world with a fortune that Bloomberg Billionaires Index which is valued at $211 billion on Monday – is eager to gain a more ideologically diverse readership by expanding its newspaper’s reach among a right-leaning audience, according to a report in The New York Times.

The Amazon founder, meanwhile, remains silent on the non-endorsement controversy. He has not spoken publicly amid protests from senior staffers and prominent figures such as Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Marty Baron, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief when Bezos bought the Washington Post more than a decade ago, denounced the move as an act of “cowardice.”

Washington Post employees were reeling Bezos’ decision to block Harris’ endorsementa draft of which was reportedly completely typed up and ready for publication.

The paper’s own reporters published an article claiming that Bezos himself had made the decision to veto the approval — a move that raised eyebrows because it broke with a 36-year tradition, less than two weeks before the election.

Bezos hired ex-Wall Street Journal boss Will Lewis as his CEO – despite protests from journalists at the newspaper who cited his alleged involvement in the UK phone hacking scandal.

Lewis, who said it was him and not Bezos who killed the endorsement, wrote a column saying the decision was actually a return to a tradition the newspaper had years ago of not endorsing candidates.

He said it was “consistent with the values ​​the Post has always stood for” and reflected the newspaper’s confidence in “the ability of our readers to make up their own minds.”

“We recognize that this will be read in a variety of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable,” Lewis wrote.

“We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values ​​that the Post has always stood for and that we hope for in a leader: character and courage in the service of American ethics, reverence for the rule of law and respect for human freedom in all its aspects . ”

The decision caused a backlash among staff and readership – with dozens of social media users claiming they had canceled their subscriptions to the paper.

A Washington Post reporter said she was left “heartbroken.” when her mother canceled her subscription above the nixed note.

Opinion section member Robert Kagan resigned in protest. He said Lewis’s explanation was “laughable” and the decision not to endorse the proposal was halted of an alleged deal between Bezos and former President Donald Trump.

Bezos’ space exploration company Blue Origin has contracts with the federal government to build a spacecraft to transport astronauts to and from the surface of the moon.

“This is clearly an attempt by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump in anticipation of his possible victory,” Kagan told CNN on Friday.

“Trump has threatened to go after Bezos’ business,” Kagan added, referring to Amazon.

The drama engulfing the washington post mirrors the turmoil unfolding in the newsroom of the los angeles times, where at least three editorial staff resigned in protest against the decision of owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong to block Vice President Kamala Harris’ endorsement.

Soon-Shiong’s daughter recently said the refusal to endorse Harris came from dissatisfaction about the Biden administration’s Israeli policies, although the billionaire denied this was the case.

MSNBC “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough blasted “billionaires” who own news outlets and social media companies for “bowing to” Trump.

“The anticipatory bowing to a man who says he’s going to be an autocrat is the first step,” Scarborough said on his show Monday. His comments were reported by Mediaite.

“It’s the billionaires versus us. It’s the billionaires versus ‘We, the people.’ We can win. They can get their billions and buy their newspapers, but we, the people, can have the final say.”

“Bezos runs one of the largest companies in America. They have extremely complicated relationships with the federal government. They depend on the federal government.”

Bezos stepped down as CEO of Amazon in 2020, although he still sits on the company’s board of directors and is the company’s largest shareholder.

During Trump’s first term, he regularly criticized Bezos for his newspaper’s coverage of his administration.

In 2019, Amazon accused Trump of political retaliation after his reign denied the company a $10 billion Pentagon contract to provide cloud computing services.

The New York Post has asked the Washington Post for comment.