The news that the Washington Post and LA Times billionaire owners told their management not to endorse one of the presidential candidates caused a loud, primal media scream.
Both newspapers have described this 2024 Presidential election as one of the most consequential in history. Despite that, the paper’s owners told their editorial staff to ignore tradition and not express an opinion. Why? Fear and greed.
The lesson learned is that billionaire saviors of struggling newspapers do not have the same commitment to the ethos or moral nature that these newspapers were built on. They are scared. Trump, the would-be Mussolini, has embraced full-crazy and made it clear that if elected, he has an enemies hit list that these tech bros billionaires do not want to be on.
Newspapers have been under assault for decades, losing ad revenue and readership to digital alternatives. Many newspaper groups fear rocking the boat with a Presidential endorsement. LA Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who made his fortune in healthcare, has a not-so-healthy newspaper business, and he likely does not want to alienate his conservative readership and advertisers with a Kamala Harris endorsement.
The real drama was at the Washington Post. Jeff Bezos, the owner of the Post, appears to have made a last-minute decision to protect his more valuable non-newspaper business interests. It has been reported that a Harris endorsement was drafted.
The decision was particularly stinging coming from a newspaper of record for many of us. Since the announcement that the Post would not endorse a Presidential candidate, several staffers have resigned or stepped down from the company’s Editorial Board. According to NPR, “more than 200,000 people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday, according to two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters, representing about 8 percent of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5 million subscribers.” The number is rising.
Jeff Bezos today differs from the person who bought the Post for $250 million from Donald Graham in 2013. During the last decade, Bezos stepped away from day-to-day management at Amazon and divorced Mackenzie Scott (formerly Bezos), making her the third wealthiest woman in the US.
The Bezos I admired has vanished, and the person we see in the media today on his superyacht has gone full muscled cartoon tech-bro, self-absorbed with body image, bodybuilding, and his curvy, arm candy girlfriend. He is living his version of La Dolce Vita, armed with the most F you money in history.
In my head, I keep hearing the Simon and Garfinkle melody and lyrics to Mrs Robinson: “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” followed by “Where have you gone, Jeff Bezos? Where have you gone, Katharine Graham and Ben Bradlee?
I remember when The Washington Post’s courageous Publisher and Executive Editor risked going to jail for defying Nixon’s threats during Watergate. What happened to Bezos, the business guru with the odd laugh, who, 30 years ago, started Amazon and the digital retail business industry and changed the world?
Bezos’ business empire includes monsters Amazon (2023 revenue $575B), AWS ($91B), and the privately held space company Blue Origin. The Washington Post is a nat—a stray media dog with a rich history he saved from extinction, which has become an annoyance. The calculation was simple. If the Post endorsed Kamala, and Trump wins, then Blue Origin, which lags way behind Space X (revenue $2B), would be shut out from government space contracts — end of story. Bezos denied that the Post’s recent endorsement policy decision was related to his other business interests. Yeh Right! Eights days before the election. If you believe that I have a rocket ship to sell you.
Bezos’ biggest tech bro competitor is Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), Tesla, and wait for it… SpaceX. Elon will perform any manner of business fellatio to pleasure Trump, including barnstorming with the crazy (“They’re eating cats and dogs”) X-President and donating $120 million to the Pro-Trump America Super PAC. The PAC is sponsoring a voter turnout gimmick that awards a daily $1 million lottery prize to registered voters in battleground states who sign his petition supporting the 1st and 2nd Amendments. The program is currently under review by the DOJ. A Trump return to the White House would help Musk and SpaceX get the SEC, DOJ, and other government institutions off his back.
I do not know how much a Presidential editorial endorsement impacts an election. My guess is not much; it primarily contributes to helping build perceived momentum for the endorsed candidate. In the last Presidential election cycle, in 2020, Biden received 47 major newspaper endorsements (circulation 9.6 million), Trump received seven endorsements (circulation 863,000), and 44 newspapers did not endorse anyone (circulation 5.2 million).
I also do not know the best recourse if you want to punish these newspapers for their cowardice. Do you cancel your newspaper subscription in a town with few local news alternatives? Do you cancel your $140 Amazon Prime account?
The list of newspapers that do not endorse a presidential candidate is growing. It now includes the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, LA Times, USA Today, Minnesota Star Tribune, and Tampa Bay Times, among others. The New York Times stands alone among national newspapers that still have a policy of picking a Presidential candidate.
Part of me wants to take a tranquilizer and wake up on Wednesday, November 6, to a new, hopefully better world without daily polls, non-stop fundraising texts, cable news network talking heads, and narcissistic billionaires who inspire fear and loathing.
Hugh Panero, a tech and media entrepreneur, was the founder and former CEO of XM Satellite Radio. He has worked with leading tech venture capital firms and was an adjunct media professor at George Washington University. He writes about Tech and Media and other stuff for the Spy.
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