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LA Times, Washington Post Non-approval is a danger to democracy

Posted on by Pranco
LA Times, Washington Post Non-approval is a danger to democracy

I have never felt so concerned about the future of our country.

Of course, it’s the fact that the presidential election is neck and neck, evenly split between a very reasonable Democratic candidate and a fearsome Republican who is a convicted felon, a pathological liar, and more cognitively questionable by the day.

I don’t trust the polls anyway, and neither should you. They were dead wrong in 2016 when Hillary Clinton was assured of a win, slightly wrong in 2020 when Trump refused to accept the result and wildly wrong in the 2022 midterm elections – remember that ‘Red Wave’ that didn’t happen? That.

But what makes me sick to my stomach is the blow to our free press, the one thing we as a country cannot do without. Free speech. Critical voices. Independent investigation into our government and elected officials.

A free and vibrant press is the single, indispensable pillar of a democracy. And those institutions are at risk.

Los Angeles Times billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision to destroying an endorsement of Kamala Harrismatched by the decision of billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to end the practice of supporting any candidate, after the newspaper’s editors also prepared to express their support, is a devastating blow to the free press.

Two of the country’s largest newspapers withdrew their views just days before the elections, even though their editors wanted to be heard. If they do this, they send a terrible message to other business leaders and to other publishers. If they dodged Trump’s provocation, others will too.

It’s legitimately scary. As historian Timothy Snyder has written, their decision on these endorsements is a kind of “anticipatory obedience,” a giving in to Trump’s threats to take revenge on his perceived enemies before anything happens and without Trump even being elected. This is a dangerous sign for democracy.

“Do not obey in advance,” Snyder writes in his groundbreaking pamphlet “On Tyranny,” which is widely quoted on social media. “Most of authoritarianism’s power is given freely. In times like these, people think ahead about what a more repressive government wants and then offer themselves up without being asked.”

Hundreds of journalists in these newsrooms who have stood up to their owners, thousands of readers who have canceled their subscriptions in the last three days, are outraged that these billionaires would “bend the knee” to Trump out of fear of what he might do.

The journalists at these newspapers have shown their mettle for years, reporting on both Trump and Joe Biden in a sea of ​​social media noise. They sift through facts, track down sources, try to identify misinformation – all under enormous pressure. Their work is essential at a time when voters don’t know what information they can trust.

You trust The Washington Post’s reporting. And the LA Times. And a handful of others. Without them, our democracy will drift.

I worked at The Washington Post for eight years. And I covered the ups and downs at the Los Angeles Times for 20 years under multiple owners. I admit I was relieved when Bezos bought the Post from the Graham family in 2013. And I loved watching Soon-Shiong, a local LA resident, save the LA Times (I thought) from Tribune’s muddled mismanagement.

But these latest decisions belie the civic duty of billionaire ownership of our news institutions. Bezos has billion-dollar contracts with the US government, and Soon-Shiong’s main source of wealth is his pharmaceutical research, which is dependent on federal approval.

Meanwhile, both newspapers are losing huge amounts of money (The Post lost $100 million last year; the Times at least $50 million). Both billionaires may regret buying them.

The argument for newspaper ownership by billionaires was that the owners were so wealthy that they were immune to political threats or intimidation. The wealthy individual made an investment in the community and acquired an instrument of influence in the halls of state and national government, business and foreign policy.

It gave them a seat at the power table in a way their money couldn’t provide. But that possession also comes with obligations. That’s a realization that seems to be escaping yet another billionaire dangerously involved with the media, X owner and Trump booster Elon Musk.

As I have argued for years, the media are different. It’s not like a sports team or a packaged good or a car manufacturer. It carries a special responsibility to uphold fair, evidence-based research and to have the courage to disseminate the results of that research.

It also means overseeing a tough editorial team of strong-willed, well-trained reporters and editors who won’t be intimidated, intimidated or bullied.

Independent media are essential in our age of disinformation. TheWrap remains fiercely independent, as we like to say. And all we do is news. Feel free to support us with a subscription, it’s worth the investment.

But as for other publications, let’s hope our billionaire problem doesn’t spread any further.


Kamala Trump Patrick Image v4