The decision of the owner Washington Post, jeff bezos, to prevent the newspaper from showing its support for the Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, in the presidential elections is costing the outlet. More than 200,000 subscribers have requested to unsubscribe, according to NPR, the semi-public radio group, citing anonymous sources. Not all cancellations take effect immediately, because many readers have annual subscriptions. The figure, which continues to increase, represents 8% of the total of the 2.5 million digital subscriptions and to the paper newspaper of the Mail.
The opinion section of the newspaper had already prepared the text supporting the Democratic candidate against donald trump. He Mail He has been asking for a vote for one of the two candidates since 1976, when he spoke out in favor of Jimmy Carter. Before, I did not do so, with the exception of 1952. In the last two elections I supported the Democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, against Donald Trump. The company’s CEO presented the decision as a return to the roots, but that argument has not convinced either the members of the opinion section, the news editorial staff, or the former glories of the newspaper.
The decision has led to resignations within the editorial board, which until now has 10 members, including the opinion director, David Shipley. Three of its members, David E. Hoffman, Molly Roberts and Mili Mitra, announced Monday that they were leaving, although they will remain at the newspaper. “It’s extremely difficult for us because we built this institution,” Hoffman said. in an interview with the media itself to explain his decision to resign. “But we cannot give up our American democracy or The Post,” added the veteran journalist, who has been with the newspaper for 42 years and who just last Thursday had received a Pulitzer Prize for his columns on autocracy. “I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in Donald Trump’s candidacy,” he wrote in his resignation letter.
Roberts said he had decided to resign “because the imperative of support Kamala Harris in front of Donald Trump is as morally clear as can be.” “Donald Trump is not a dictator yet, but the quieter we are, the closer he will be, because dictators do not have to order the press to be cooperative… the press knows this and censors itself,” says the journalist, who writes columns about technology and society, in addition to being part of the editorial board.
Bezos himself has tried to justify his decision with an article published this Monday in the newspaper under the title The harsh truth: Americans don’t trust the media. “Most people believe that the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see it that way barely pays attention to reality, and anyone who fights against reality loses. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing decline in credibility (and therefore our decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help,” he maintains.
According to Bezos, “presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the balance of an election. No undecided voter in Pennsylvania will say, ‘I’ll support Newspaper A.’ None. What presidential endorsements do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Putting an end to them is a decision of principle, and it is the correct one,” he adds.
The owner of the newspaper faces criticism from those who say that the decision was made to be able to do business with the Administration if Trump wins. “I would also like to make it clear that there is no quid pro quo of any kind here. No campaign or candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision. It was taken completely internally,” he explains, before admitting: “When it comes to the appearance of a conflict of interest, I’m not the ideal owner of The Mail. Every day, somewhere, some executive from Amazon or Blue Origin or someone from the other foundations and companies I own or invest in meets with government officials.” He adds, however, that never since he bought the newspaper in 2013 has he imposed a decision based on his particular interests.
And he ends forcefully: “Although I do not and will not defend my personal interest, I will not allow this newspaper to remain on autopilot and fade into irrelevance, surpassed by podcasts without research and the nonsense of social networks. Not without fighting. It’s too important. There is too much at stake. Now more than ever, the world needs a credible, trustworthy and independent voice, and what better place for it to emerge than the capital of the world’s most important country? To win this fight, we will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and others will be new inventions. Of course, criticism will be part of everything new. This is the world. None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it,” he writes.
Among those who first criticized the change of position of the Mail, defining it as an act of cowardice, he was Marty Baron, who was editor of the newspaper. This Monday he gave an interview to NPR in which he gave more explanations about his rejection. “If this decision had been made three years ago, two years ago, maybe even a year ago, it would have been fine,” Baron said. “It is certainly a reasonable decision. But it was taken a couple of weeks before the election, and there was no serious substantive deliberation with the newspaper’s editorial board. “It was clearly taken for other reasons, not for reasons of high principle,” he added.
The decision of Washington Post abstaining from giving its support to any of the candidates followed another in the same sense on the part of Los Angeles Times. They joined this Monday USA today and the entire network of newspapers of the Gannet group, to which it belongs. There are more than 200 different publications distributed throughout the country, including The Arizona Republic, The Des Moines Register and the Detroit Free Press. None of these more than 200 media outlets will support one of the two presidential candidates, although they will be able to comment on the state and local elections if they consider it appropriate.
