Tag Archives: the washington post

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Presidential Endorsements Do Nothing Amid Post Controversey

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The Washington Submit proprietor Jeff Bezos wrote in an op-ed on Monday that the paper’s option to stop presidential endorsements was borne from an try and regain the belief of its readers.

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements really do is create a notion of bias. A notion of non-independence.”

Submit CEO Will Lewis introduced in a memo on Thursday that the paper wouldn’t endorse a candidate for president — the primary time since 1988 — and can stop to take action for future elections. The information got here three days after the Los Angeles Instances introduced related plans.

In his editorial on Monday, Bezos wrote that their determination was one solution to rebuild the general public’s belief, he mentioned had been degraded by “off-the-cuff podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and different unverified information sources.” He additionally referenced a Gallup ballot reporting that People’ belief within the media had fallen under that of Congress.

“Most individuals imagine the media is biased,” Bezos wrote. “Anybody who doesn’t see that is paying scant consideration to actuality, and people who struggle actuality lose.”

The Amazon billionaire went on to invoke Eugene Meyer, writer of The Washington Submit from 1933 to 1946, who additionally refused to endorse presidential candidates. “He was proper,” Bezos wrote.

Bezos additionally mentioned he wished “we had made the change sooner than we did, in a second farther from the election and the feelings round it,” saying the choice “was insufficient planning, and never some intentional technique.”

Acknowledging the critics who say Bezos made the choice out of his personal enterprise pursuits, Bezos wrote that readers “can see my wealth and enterprise pursuits as a bulwark in opposition to intimidation, or you’ll be able to see them as an internet of conflicting pursuits,” however that “solely my very own ideas can tip the steadiness from one to the opposite.”

He concluded, “Whereas I don’t and won’t push my private curiosity, I may also not enable this paper to remain on autopilot and fade into irrelevance.”

The Submit has seen a mass exodus of subscribers since final week, with 200,000 passed by Monday, NPR reported. Amongst them was Liz Cheney, who mentioned at a New Yorker occasion that “when you will have Jeff Bezos apparently afraid to difficulty an endorsement for the one candidate within the race who’s a steady accountable grownup as a result of he fears Donald Trump, that tells you why we’ve got to work so arduous to make it possible for Donald Trump isn’t elected.”

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Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein on Post Decision to Not Endorse President

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Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein have spoken out following The Washington Submit‘s determination to cease endorsing presidential candidates.

The legendary journalists shared a joint assertion on X (previously Twitter) on Saturday, addressing the choice to revert to an outdated coverage the publication had through which it remained neutral.

“We respect the normal independence of the editorial web page, however this determination 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores The Washington Submit‘s personal overwhelming reportorial proof on the menace Donald Trump poses to democracy,” the assertion learn.

They continued, “Beneath Jeff Bezos’ possession, The Washington Post’s information operation has used its plentiful assets to scrupulously examine the hazard and injury a second Trump presidency might trigger to the way forward for American democracy and that makes this determination much more stunning and disappointing, particularly this late within the electrical course of.”

On Friday, the publication introduced it could not endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump on this 12 months’s presidential election, a choice that it has not made since 1988. As a substitute, The Washington Submit will let readers determine which candidate it helps and preserve this coverage transferring ahead.

A memo was launched to workers through which CEO Will Lewis wrote: “The Washington Submit is not going to be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate on this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We’re returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”

In an try and preempt criticism concerning the determination, Lewis defined that it had nothing to do with the candidates.

“We acknowledge that this might be learn in a spread of the way, together with as a tacit endorsement of 1 candidate, or as a condemnation of one other, or as an abdication of duty. That’s inevitable,” the memo continued. “We don’t see it that manner. We see it as in line with the values The Submit has all the time stood for and what we hope for in a pacesetter: character and braveness in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of legislation, and respect for human freedom in all its points. We additionally see it as a press release in assist of our readers’ skill to make up their very own minds on this, probably the most consequential of American choices — whom to vote for as the subsequent president.”