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Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, is facing criticism from The Washington Post’s staff following the paper’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in 36 years.
According to the paper’s article, the paper’s editorial page staff had written a letter endorsing Kamala Harris for president of the United States, but it was not published after Bezos, the paper’s owner, decided to change his endorsement policy. That’s what it means.
The shift in decades-old policy comes less than two weeks before the presidential election, which polls show is a close race between Harris and former President Donald Trump.
There was tension between Trump and Bezos during their tenure in the White House. Amazon filed a lawsuit in 2019 alleging it was denied a $10 billion U.S. defense contract due to “overt and escalating pressure” from then-President Trump. The Pentagon then won the so-called Jedi contract against a competing bid from Microsoft.
The Washington Post’s chief executive, Sir Will Lewis, outlined the reasons behind the policy change in an op-ed and acknowledged it could be perceived as an “abdication of responsibility”, but said: he added. ”
But the paper’s union said the decision raised concerns that “management had interfered in the lives of its members with its editorials.” As a result, the paper has suffered subscriber cancellations, it added.
By Saturday morning, 17 Post columnists had signed an editorial, calling the decision “terrible” at a time when “some candidates are advocating positions that directly threaten free press and constitutional values.” It was a mistake.”
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the reporters who broke the Watergate scandal for the paper, said the decision “ignores the Post’s own overwhelming journalistic evidence of the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.” “
On Saturday, Lewis issued a statement saying some of the reporting about the situation had been “inaccurate.” He said Bezos “was not sent, did not read, and did not comment on the draft” letter of support for the president.
“As a publisher, I don’t believe in the president’s support,” he added. “We are an independent newspaper and we need to support our readers’ ability to make their own decisions.”
This is the first time since 1988 that the Post has not endorsed a president.
Lewis wrote in an article Friday that the decision marks a return to the paper’s roots. He noted that the Post had not endorsed either Richard Nixon or John F. Kennedy in the 1960 election, and had decided not to become involved in Nixon’s 1972 reelection campaign.
Mr Lewis, a former News Corp and Telegraph executive, was appointed by Mr Bezos last year to stem mounting losses and declining readership.
People close to Mr. Lewis have said in the past that Mr. Lewis is in regular contact with Mr. Bezos and would not make any major decisions without his input. Mr. Lewis, a former Financial Times reporter and news editor, became publisher of the Post in November 2023.
This summer, Mr. Lewis infuriated Washington Post reporters by replacing his editor-in-chief and other staff with former colleagues from the Wall Street Journal and the Telegraph. He faced investigations from rival newspapers and his own publications over his role in the phone hacking scandal in Britain when he was a senior executive in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
The paper’s confusion came after Murdoch’s New York Post endorsed President Trump, declaring in a front-page headline that “the choice was clear.”
The tabloid’s endorsement comes a week after Trump appeared on Fox & Friends and called on Murdoch to stop Fox News from airing “negative commercials” that could damage his re-election campaign. Announced.
“I’m going to tell him something very simple,” Trump said. “Please do not air negative commercials for 21 days.”
Murdoch also had a rocky relationship with Trump. In documents revealed during Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News, Murdoch said President Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen “are a huge disservice to the country.” . . It is best not to mention his name unless it is important, and of course do not support him. ” Mr. Murdoch settled the lawsuit.
The Post’s withdrawal of support follows a decision by Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong to block Harris from endorsing her. Editorial editor Mariel Garza resigned in protest.
Hours after the Post announced the endorsement, Trump greeted executives from Blue Origin, the space company owned by Bezos, the Associated Press reported. $3.4 billion contract with NASA Building a spacecraft to send astronauts to the moon.
