Jim Cason and David Brooks
Correspondents
La Jornada Newspaper
Wednesday, October 30, 2024, p. 21
Washington and New York. Americans are discovering, once again, that the billionaire owners of large media outlets are not necessarily guardians of editorial independence when their business interests are at stake in an election, as was the case in the Washington Postwhen he announced last week that he will not endorse either of the two presidential candidates in this race.
Jeff Bezos, rated by Forbes as the world’s second-richest man, owner of Amazon, ordered his newspaper to break with a nearly five-decade tradition of endorsing presidential candidates. As a result of the decision, some members of the editorial board and some opinion writers resigned, and more than 250,000 readers, according to NPR, canceled their subscriptions (10 percent of the total).
Bezos, forced to respond to these reactions, defended the decision in a statement published on the front page of the post and insisted that it had nothing to do with his business interests. But as his first editor-in-chief, Marty Baron, noted in his book, Bezos faced intense pressure from then-President Donald Trump that included attempts to deny government contracts to Amazon over critical coverage of the post of his presidency.
That is cowardice, with democracy as its victim. Donald Trump will perceive this as an invitation to continue bullying owner Bezos (and others)commented Baron on the social network X when commenting on the decision. The lack of character of an institution famous for its bravery is worryinghe concluded. Two of the most famous journalists in the history of postBob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (who uncovered the scandal Watergateamong other feats) commented that this decision just 12 days before the election ignores “the overwhelming evidence reported by the Washington Post about the threat that Trump represents to democracy.”
The same day that the newspaper announced its decision not to endorse any candidate, executives from another Bezos company, Blue Origin, held a meeting with Trump in Florida. There is no connection between that and our decision on presidential endorsementsBezos insisted, although few within his own newspaper and others believe that statement.
He Washington Post is not the only one
But he post he is not alone. This month, the billionaire owner of Los Angeles Times He also announced that his newspaper would not endorse a presidential candidate this year. The endorsement of Democrat and Californian Kamala Harris that had already been prepared by the opinion team was discarded. Shortly after, the newspaper’s opinion editor resigned.
In Donald Trump’s campaign, these decisions were celebrated since the postnewspaper of the capital, and Los Angeles Timesthe largest newspaper in the state of California where the Democratic candidate was born and began her political career, would support Harris.
This week the national newspaper USA Today He also announced that he will not endorse anyone, although it is not clear if the private equity firm that indirectly owns the newspaper had any role in that decision.
But in the last 10 days, already a week before the election, three of the country’s five main newspapers have decided not to endorse any presidential candidate.
Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own a press.concluded journalist AJ Liebling in The New Yorker more than 60 years ago.
