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submitted 4 weeks ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

Employees outraged at ‘chicken-shit’ move that breaks 30-year precedent, alleging Jeff Bezos quashed Harris support

There was uproar and outrage among the Washington Post’s current and former staffers and other notable figures in the world of American media after the newspaper’s leaders on Friday chose to not endorse any candidate in the US presidential election.

The newspaper’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced on Friday that for the first time in over 30 years, the paper’s editorial board would not be endorsing a candidate in this year’s presidential election, nor in future presidential elections.

After the news broke, reactions came flooding in, with people criticizing the decision, which, according to some staffers and reporters, was allegedly made by the Post’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos.

Karen Attiah, a columnist for the Washington Post who writes a weekly newsletter, called the decision an “absolute stab in the back”.

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[-] dhork@lemmy.world 74 points 4 weeks ago

I wonder if we'll ever find out how many subscriptions they lost because of it.

[-] EnderLaw@lemmy.world 59 points 4 weeks ago

Canceled mine immediately.

[-] ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee 14 points 4 weeks ago

Same! Now I have NYT only although they spam like crazy. Reuters is going sub now so I’ll prob pick them up since I’ve been enjoying their stuff for years now.

[-] skittle07crusher@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 weeks ago

Cousin works for Reuters. Fuck them. “Centrist” or “”unbiased”” means fucking dogshit, at least to me, these days.

[-] ThirdWorldOrder@lemm.ee 5 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah but most times I just want the news and not the talking heads. I like Reuters on in the morning with a cup of coffee.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 2 points 4 weeks ago

There's unbiased as in, "if two groups disagree, we won't do anything to favour either side".

And then there unbiased as in, "we will report the facts as best as we can tell them, regardless of which sides, if any, those facts favour".

Reuters, as I understand it, is more the latter than the former. But too many major media organizations are the former.

Whichever one of those definitions of "unbiased" you subscribe to, the other will seem biased, unless both sides are doing the same thing (eg both lying or both being honest and accurate).

[-] ImADifferentBird 61 points 4 weeks ago

The funny thing is, if they did endorse Harris, probably nobody would notice or care. But the fact that they were stopped from endorsing Harris is now a huge story.

Jeff Bezos, meet Barbara Streisand.

[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 44 points 4 weeks ago

Sigh...Billionaires buying America media and using it for their own ends is American as Apple pie. Hearst, Pulitzer, Luce, Murdock, now Bezos. I think the thing to say about this issue is Bezos is basically a Coward and not worth the time to think about.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

Add Musk and Zuckerberg to that list, too, along with the various funds/groups that own Reddit. Trump could be on the list, too, though only his cult takes his seriously.

Social media works a bit differently but the end result is similar. Or worse, given how much things have accelerated in the couple of decades since social media made it to the main stream.

[-] garretble@lemmy.world 18 points 4 weeks ago

I’m curious of who down the line capitulated to Bezos.

He could say “don’t endorse!” but someone there also has to say “ok boss!”

They could still run the endorsement. Someone may get fired for it, but Bezos isn’t down in the newsroom hitting the big STOP THE PRESSES button that shuts the whole operation down.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

well, apparently the toady they brought over from Murdochistan.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago

So the same people who spent almost a decade sanewashing trump and leaning into his candidacy for no reason other than morbid fascination and clicks are getting spanked out in public by the monster they created.

Sucks.

[-] ImADifferentBird 8 points 4 weeks ago

I'd be willing to bet that the billionaire owners had more to do with that than you think.

They don't spend all that money on trusted media outlets to not control the narrative.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 11 points 4 weeks ago

If there's someone here who thinks billionaires owning our news isn't a problem then you should search the terms, USS Maine, Spanish-American War, and Yellow Journalism.

Nothing has changed.

[-] Hikermick@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

Now how will I know who to vote for?

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 7 points 4 weeks ago

Hehe. True. But also not the point.

[-] ryan213@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 weeks ago

Would this have been a bigger story if they did endorse?

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 1 points 4 weeks ago

Glad I stopped subscribing to the washingron post a few years ago.

[-] Landsharkgun@midwest.social 1 points 4 weeks ago

Clearly unethical. They should have loudly proclaimed their support for Claudia de la Cruz.

this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
380 points (100.0% liked)

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