Okay, this one's kind of political.
The one tiny little caveat to Jeff Bezos's claim that his decision to have the Washington Post refrain from endorsing a Presidential candidate had nothing at all to do with any worries about antagonizing former President Trump is that the two men had already crossed swords in the past. There's plenty of reason to believe Amazon lost out in a big cloud computing contract with DoD during the Trump administration due to personal enmity between the two men.
It's happened before. If Mr. Trump wins in November, who could say it won't happen again? Mr. Bezos has a lot to gain if his paper sits this one out -- and nothing to lose if Vice-President Harris wins.
From a business standpoint, it's a no-brainer, and that holds no matter what high-minded justifications he puts forth.
Newspapers often make candidate endorsements, and I doubt those endorsements move a lot of voters; it's usually pretty obvious where a paper's editors stand. It's just an honest choosing of sides for the opinion pages. Staying officially neutral is unusual. We expect the front page to be neutral. The opinion page has got to stand for something, even if it's something half the readers don't like. (They'll probably find something on the op-ed page.)
The Washington Post -- and the Los Angeles Times -- have chosen to stand for not getting beat up if the bully hits the big time again. It's a choice, and one that gives readers valuable information about their papers: they're owned by spineless men.
BUILDING A 1:1 BALUN
4 years ago
2 comments:
From what I read this morning, 200,000 WA PO subscribers have cancelled in disgust-about 8 % of the subscriber base. Since advertisers are buying access to that base, Bezo's play toy just took a big hit. He can afford it, but the good journalists who work there may lose jobs because "We can't afford your salary any more".
Sure, Jeff. Sure.
I was bullied a LOT in school. The bullying stopped the day I slugged him and put him on the floor in front of the office. I walked straight into the office and sat in front of the principal, shaking. Back then, a day in detention was all I got (today, you'd be suspended or worse). But the bullying stopped! Kowtowing to bullies doesn't work. Appeasement usually ends in disaster.
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