Bezos The Brave?

In 2013, the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, purchased The Washington Post for $250 million. During the last decade, the paper has established an enviable reputation for integrity and veracity, in particular in regard to is highlighting of the number of false or misleading statements made by Donald Trump, who, as I write this, stands a good chance of being the next President of The United States, and effectively the leader of what we loving call 'the free world'.

During the first 100 days of his presidency, the Post recorded 492 falsehoods (let's just cut to the chase and call them lies, shall we).

On November 2nd 2020 Trump barnstormed across America in an attempt to win that year's election and the Post recorded 503 lies on just that one day.

By the end of his period in office, the Post had recorded a staggering 30,573 lies during his presidency. That's an average of 21 a day, with a notable acceleration in lie-rate as his term progressed.

Yet, despite the obvious unsuitability of Trump for high office (would you even employ a person with such a record to clean your office toilets?), the Washington Post, under the guidance of Jess Bezos, has repealed its endorsement of Trump's opponent.

Since that decision, the paper has lost approximately 10% of its digital subscribers (about 250,000 people). More will surely follow.

What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.

In an opinion piece in the Post, Bezos said "Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election". He added "What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.". Well, that's certainly one interpretation. And an interpretation that would be plausible had it been made three years ago, but just single-digit days before a highly contested election, with one candidate who has repeatedly threatened retribution against the media, smacks of cowardice.

That's certainly my opinion, and it seems to be shared:

There’s just this huge amount of feeling that what we do has been set back by this sort of giant hit on our trust, and trust is what journalism is about.

So far one senior editor and one third of the editorial board have resigned and, it seems, more will follow.

I cannot sit here any longer on the editorial board and write those editorials while we ourselves have given in to silence,” he said. “We face a terrible, terrible choice, I believe, a looming autocracy. I don’t want to be silent about it. I don’t want the Post to be silent about it, and the fact that we’re not going to endorse is a degree of silence I can’t stand.

November 5th 2024 is looking like a key moment in history. Surely veracity counts for something? Maybe, maybe not.

Meanwhile, I take comfort from a quick internet search for Jeff Bezos, which showed several possible solutions to the current problem: