The second richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, is facing criticism from the editors of his newspaper, The Washington Post. The billionaire should have decided that for the first time in 36 years, his newspaper will not support any candidate in the presidential elections in the United States, which will take place on November 5. Americans are already voting early in many places.
According to the paper’s column, the WP editorial team wrote an article in support of Harris that it ultimately did not publish. The decision to stop supporting presidential candidates in this and the next election, according to four informed sources, was made by the owner of the newspaper, Bezos, who is the founder of Amazon.
The newspaper’s decision comes less than two weeks before an election in which polls predict a very close result. There has been tension between Trump and Bezos during the Republican’s presidency, according to the Financial Times. Amazon filed a lawsuit in 2019 alleging it didn’t win a $10 billion defense contract because of “increasing and overt pressure” from the then-president. The Department of Defense later awarded the contract to a competing bid from Microsoft.
In an opinion column, Washington Post editor Will Lewis outlined the reasons why the media changed its stance on supporting candidates. He admitted that it could be seen as an “abdication of responsibility”, but added: “We don’t see it that way”. However, the newspaper’s journalists’ association expressed concern that the newspaper’s management was interfering with the work of the editorial staff and claimed that the Washington Post lost some of its subscribers after the announcement.
By Saturday morning, 17 WP columnists had signed a statement calling the decision a “terrible mistake” at a time when “one of the candidates is promoting positions that directly threaten press freedom and constitutional values.”
Journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who together broke the Watergate scandal that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon in 1974, called the current decision not to endorse either candidate an “overwhelming reporting of the Washington Post’s evidence of the threat that Donald Trump poses to democracy” “.
On Saturday, Director Lewis issued a statement saying some of the newspaper’s reports of the decision were “inaccurate.” According to him, Bezos “did not receive, read or comment on any proposal” to support the presidential candidacy. “We are an independent newspaper and we should support our readers’ ability to make up their own minds,” he said.
It will be the first time since 1988 that the Washington Post has not endorsed a presidential candidate. Lewis wrote that the decision marks a return to the newspaper’s roots. He recalled that the paper did not support either Nixon or John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election, and also chose not to support Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign.
After the Los Angeles Times, this is the second American newspaper to block support for Harris at the behest of its owner, The Verge wrote. The owner of The Los Angeles Times, media mogul Patrick Soon-Shiong, similarly blocked a planned endorsement of Harris, prompting three editorial board members to resign. The media mogul’s daughter later said that the decision was motivated by Harris’ stance on the war in the Gaza Strip, specifically her support for Israel.