Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos defended his publication’s decision not to back a presidential candidate ahead of the Nov. 5 election, insisting political endorsements “create a perception of bias.”
Bezos broke his silence on the matter in an op-ed published by the Washington Post Monday night, arguing his newspaper ending its long-running practice of endorsing a candidate for the White House is a “principled decision, and it’s the right one.”
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None,” he wrote.
“What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.”
Washington Post CEO and Publisher Will Lewis announced on Friday the newspaper was forgoing its pick for president, leading to outrage inside and outside of the newsroom.
The newspaper’s editorial board reportedly had a draft penned in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris over former President Donald Trump before the kibosh was put on the endorsement.
More than 200,000 Washington Post readers so far have ended their digital subscriptions following the controversial decision, NPR reported on Monday.
And a few opinion section staffers have also stepped down.
Bezos, in the op-ed, also stressed that the American public doesn’t trust the press anymore and news organizations “must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.”
“We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement,” he wrote.
“Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.”
The second-richest man in the world added his paper and the New York Times win numerous awards, but “increasingly we talk only to a certain elite.”
“Many people are turning to off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unverified news sources, which can quickly spread misinformation and deepen divisions,” Bezos stated.
The Amazon founder also addressed an allegation from one of the staffers that stepped down, editor-at-large Robert Kagan, that Bezos reached a deal with Trump because the GOP nominee met with executives at Blue Origin – the space company owned by Bezos – after the Washington Post’s announcement.
“I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here,” he wrote “Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision.”
Bezos claimed he was unaware of the meeting between Blue Origin and Trump that happened the same day as the non-endorsement announcement, and when he later found out about it, he “sighed.”
“I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision,” he wrote.
The paper’s decision not to endorse in the 2024 election marks the first time in 36 years it won’t issue an endorsement.
Lewis, the paper’s publisher, wrote on Friday that the Washington Post was not breaking from tradition, but rather returning to the paper’s practice from years ago of not endorsing candidates.
He said it was “consistent with the values the Post has always stood for” and it reflected the paper’s faith in “our readers’ ability to make up their own minds.”
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