This didn’t take long at all to blow up in Jeff Bezos face. The Washington Post decided to kill a Kamala Harris endorsement at the last minute and elaborate explanations for that were given. But that didn’t earn the good graces of Donald Trump. No, it was not sufficient bending of the knee. So 250,000 canceled subscriptions later, Trump has filed an FEC complaint alleging that the Harris campaign was given in kind contributions by the newspaper. New York Post:
According to the six-page complaint, the Washington Post made the in-kind contributions through an alleged “coordinated communications” strategy that benefits the Harris campaign, relying on a Semafor report that showed the paper was paying to boost critical Trump content and “neutral” Harris articles.
“To wit, one of the promoted articles highlighted how the Harris digital team was pushing content on social media claiming people were leaving President Trump’s rallies early,” the compalint states.
“A reasonable inference is that the Harris team has communicated its messaging strategy to The Washington Post, and that that messaging strategy is reflected in what The Post chooses to promote,” it concludes.
The Trump campaign in a statement said it was a part of mainstream media’s “pro-Kamala propaganda.”
The takeaway here is don’t bend the knee to a tyrant because it won’t do you any good. What is tragic is that the loss of 250,000 subscriptions will create a cash flow crunch, which will result in another round of layoffs of either staffers or journalists or both. It won’t hurt Jeff Bezos. That’s about $35,000,000 in lost revenue. That’s a huge figure to most businesses, and it will be to the operating account of the Post, to be sure. But $35M is chump change to Bezos. He could set fire to that much and not miss it.
That leads us to another takeaway: canceling subscriptions only hurts the worker fees, not the owners. The best way to win is to vote for Kamala Harris.
This is the second specious lawsuit this week, the first one was against CBS News for $10B, which was done for showmanship purposes. I would expect that lawsuit to be dropped shortly after the election. Trump will need all the money he can get to use for his own legal defense in a few days.
no it doesn’t hurt the WaPo workers because a. they quit to make a statement and b. other media will pick them up and c. I will boycott whoever I believe is crooked and in hoots with Trump.
So, I guess I can sue all those TV network executives for all the FREE advertising they gave Trump back in 2016, not to mention all the media’s recent “sanewashing” every last bit of Trump’s bullcrap? (Not that I could really do it–I ain’t got that kind of money just burning a hole in my pockets.)
So-oooo, Jeff Bezos is the 21st century reincarnation of WWII-era British Prime Minister Neville Chaimberlan, who tried to appease Hitler after the attack on Poland in 1939 under the foolish idea that Hitler would be satisfied with that prize and take no further action.
Didn’t work then, either…..