Jeff Bezos blocks Washington Post's endorsement of Kamala Harris

October 29, 2024

There’s something wrong here…..

This is reported by NPR The Washington Post lost over 200,000 subscribers after owner Jeff Bezos blocked the publication from issuing an approval for Vice President Kamala Harris.

The influx of digital subscription cancellations started pouring in on October 28. Although not all cancellations take effect immediately, The Washington Post expected to lose nearly 8% of its paid circulation, with approximately 2.5 million subscribers, including print subscribers. Former editor-in-chief Marcus Brauchli says the number may not seem like a lot, but it is, and the team is in the dark as to why this decision was made. “It’s a colossal number,” Brauchli said.

“The problem is that people don’t know why the decision was made. Actually, we know the decision has been made, but we don’t know what led to it.”

Both current and former WashingtonPost editors have gone back and forth on the real reason.

Chief Executive and Publisher Will Lewis claims the decision not to endorse any candidate in the 2024 presidential race is all about The mail‘s roots,” saying, “it has called itself an independent newspaper for many years.”

However, former editor-in-chief Marty Baron raised some issues with that story and questioned the timing of the decision, given that the race between Harris and former President Donald Trump is neck and neck and Election Day is just seven days away. “If this decision had been made three years ago, two years ago, maybe even a year ago, that would have been fine. It’s certainly a reasonable decision,” Baron said.

“But this happened within a few weeks of the elections, and no substantive, serious consultation took place with the newspaper’s editorial staff. It was clearly made for other reasons, not for reasons of principle.”

Even Bezos himself acknowledged that the timing wasn’t ideal.

In a nine-paragraph opinion piece published in The mail on October 28, the Amazon billionaire admitted a mistake.

“I wish we had made the change sooner than we did, at a time further away from the election and the emotions surrounding it,” he wrote. “That was inadequate planning and not a deliberate strategy.”

In the same article, Bezos defended the choice by putting forward a narrative that statements of support mean nothing to the candidates.

“Presidential expressions of support do not change the outcome of an election. No undecided voter in Pennsylvania will say, “I agree with the endorsement of Newspaper A.” None,” he claims.

“What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending it is a decision of principle, and it is the right one.”

Following the announcement, the publication is now in damage control mode. After Bezos’ decision The mail lost two columnists and two staff writers – one of whom was David Hoffman, who accepted a Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing on October 24. The other writer, Molly Roberts, announced her resignation from X. In the post, she warned of what the damage silence about a presidential campaign can cause. “Donald Trump is not yet a dictator,” she wrote.

“But the quieter we are, the closer he gets.”