Jeff Bezos is insisting that concerns about his businesses played no role in his decision to kill the Washington Post editorial board’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris.
In an editorial published Monday afternoon in the Washington Post, Bezos also justified the decision — which has so far cost the paper hundreds of thousands of subscribers as well as some of its most high profile writers — by citing widespread distrust of media among Americans.
Bezos also did not acknowledge or address any of the reporting about his role in the scandal, which has mired WaPo in an existential crisis.
First citing a recent Gallup poll showing that Americans now trust media less than Congress, Bezos asserted, “Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.”
The Amazon boss complained that many people believe the media is biased, stating in part, “We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate,” before moving on to deny that newspaper endorsements even matter. “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” he said, arguing instead that they “create a perception of bias.”
Bezos didn’t directly address reporting by the New York Times this weekend that he decided against any endorsement at all more than a month ago, but for reasons unexplained, didn’t inform the editorial board until after they had submitted one, guaranteeing negative headlines for Harris.
He did, however, deny there was anything suspicious about that timing. “I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy,” Bezos wrote.
“Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision,” he also noted. “It was made entirely internally.” Bezos further said that he had no advance knowledge that Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp was going to meet with Donald Trump the same day he killed the Harris endorsement. “I sighed when I found out, because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision. But the fact is, I didn’t know about the meeting beforehand.”
Criticism of Bezos’ decision not to endorse is particularly sharp as it came on the heels of the similarly controversial call by Los Angeles Times owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong. Both non-endorsements have prompted multiple resignations and a surge of subscriber cancellations.
The Columbia Journalism Review reported that discussions about the Post’s usual presidential endorsement “stalled” a few weeks ago. As with the Times, staffers at the Post said that they had already written an endorsement for Harris, and were “stunned” to learn that the paper’s owner chose not to run it.
Several editorial board members have stepped down in the meantime, including David Hoffman, who just won a Pulitzer Prize last week. In his letter, he wrote, “I find it untenable and unconscionable that we have lost our voice at this perilous moment.”
“Donald Trump is not yet a dictator. But the quieter we are, the closer he comes — because dictators don’t have to order the press to publish cooperatively if it wishes to go on publishing at all. The press knows, and it censors itself,” Molly Roberts, who also stepped down from the board, wrote.
