Super-billionaire Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos is under attack for reportedly stopping the Post from endorsing Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, an endorsement that was prepared for publication and based on the Post‘s years-long examination of Republican candidate Donald Trump‘s conduct and fitness for office.
It was the second time in a week that a major newspaper owned by a billionaire pulled a Harris endorsement, allegedly at the request of the owner. (The Los Angeles Times saw its editor quit after owner Patrick Soon-Shiong reportedly stopped the paper from publishing its Harris endorsement.)
The reluctance by both billionaires has been widely characterized as a quid pro quo with Trump, who has threatened to target business interests and personal freedom of his enemies in a second term.
Bezos has major business with the federal government, and he appeared unwilling to put that at risk with a principled — yet largely ineffectual — editorial in favor of one candidate over the other.
The Post, which endorsed Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in the two previous elections, has said it will stop the practice in general — thereby trying to elude a charge that it is capitulating to Trump or that it considers both candidates equally capable.
Instead, it says nothing, inciting warnings from many — including Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) and former RNC chair Michael Steele, who believe self-censorship is the plain result of Trump’s threats — as shown below.
The first step towards fascism is when the free press cowers in fear. https://t.co/6SjGYyxmR3
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) October 25, 2024
What a rag move. So much for darkness blah blah blah… https://t.co/HMMHPTKehF
— Michael Steele (@MichaelSteele) October 25, 2024
Bezos has so far made no public comment on the Post‘s failure to endorse.
[NOTE: Trump’s first term caused Bezos headaches and a loss of potential federal agency-derived revenue, a situation about which the billionaire was forewarned when in 2016 Trump said about Amazon at a rally: “If I become president, oh do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems.” Trump’s threats presently are more drastic.]
Bezos’s alleged cowardice, which his supporters describe as pragmatism and realism, sullies the reputation he earned in 2019 when he famously stood up to alleged blackmail attempts by the National Enquirer, refusing to back down from threats by the publication to publish intimate photos of him — despite the personal embarrassment it would have caused.
Writing his own defense then, Bezos said he felt that — in his lofty and powerful position — he had to stand up when faced with extortion demands. If he couldn’t, who could?
Bezos memorably wrote, in words that this week are stinging to members of the free press and to critics of the billionaire’s standing down, about his foe’s “weaponizing” privileges and “ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism.”
He wrote too that he wouldn’t countenance “blackmail” or “political favors” or “attacks.”
Reading the statement today, Bezos seems to be writing in a different world. AMI, of course, is easier to “stand up” to than a retribution-minded President of the United States.
“These communications cement [National Enquirer owner] AMI’s long-earned reputation for weaponizing journalistic privileges, hiding behind important protections, and ignoring the tenets and purpose of true journalism…Of course I don’t want personal photos published, but I also won’t participate in their well-known practice of blackmail, political favors, political attacks, and corruption. I prefer to stand up, roll this log over, and see what crawls out.”
Jeff Bezos