People Lost Trust In US Media: Jeff Bezos Defends The Post's Move Not To Endorse Candidate
The billionaire owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, has defended the decision of the newspaper not to endorse a candidate from the US presidential election as the right one. The high-stakes contest is scheduled to be held on November 5, mainly between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican’s Donald Trump.
The billionaire businessman dismissed claims that the decision was out of his personal interest, stressing that it was a principled decision to restore trust in the media as it has been eroding due to the allegations of collaboration.
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In an op-ed on Monday, Bezos, who purchased the Washington Post for $250 million in 2013, further said that the 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 asserted, underscoring that what presidential endorsements actually do is create a “perception of bias, a perception of non-independence.” He added that ending that creation of perception was a “principled decision.”
Notably, as one of the most storied newspapers in US journalistic history, the Washington Post had endorsed candidates for much of the last four decades, and all of them were the Democrats. As a result, the Post has reportedly lost around 200,000 digital subscribers, eight percent of the total subscribers, as the battle for the upcoming election intensifies.
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There were also resignations from the editorial team following the decision. Earlier, a similar decision was taken by the Los Angeles Times, announcing its decision not to endorse any candidate.
Defending the Post’s move, the Amazon founder wrote that he was worried that people had lost trust in the traditional US media and were getting their news from social media, leaving them vulnerable to disinformation. He observes that most people believe the media is biased, and anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality.
