I’m sure since you’re reading this you know the famous Washington Post is caught up in controversy at the moment. The Editorial Board had prepared an endorsement of Kamala Harris for President. The WaPo has made an endorsement in Presidential races for a half-century. This time, owner and mega billionaire Jeff Bezos stepped in and killed it. Oh, his Managing Editor tried (and failed) to take the hit but everyone knew it was Bezos who delivered the kill shot. For those worried about the once proud newspaper that was the nation’s most politically astute and influential worst fears were realized. Or were they? It turns out the worst fears likely included a quid pro quo between Bezos and Trump!
As I read, and for minutes after doing so a streak of cussing reminiscent of my days as a Marine grunt (infantryman) this article by The Guardian I felt like something priceless has been destroyed. The pieces might someday be put back together but the stuff holding the cracks together will always be visible. Combined with the L.A. Times and of course the New York Times with it’s ‘sometimes critical – sometimes making excuses for’ treatment of Trump (hedging its bets) it’s clear the free press in the United States is free no more. It’s f**king SCARED of Trump and MAGA. Or perhaps more accurately the forces such as The Federalist Society and lesser known people and entities that have gotten us to the point where a Trump is possible and would have unlimited power.
So, instead of protecting the public by providing objective facts and reporting major people who control the news are doing Mitch McConnell “turtle” impersonations and pulling their heads inside their shells. But let’s talk about my allegation of a quid pro quo. Look at the timeline. As The Guardian notes, a New York Times article reported on senior WaPo news and opinion leaders flying to Miami back in late September. Bezos expressed concerns about the paper issuing an endorsement. At least in the Presidential race. Remember, Bezos owns not just Amazon but Blue Origin which has been competing for space contracts.
Then this past Friday the WaPo announced it would NOT issue an endorsement for the Nov. 5 Presidential race. Did I mention they’d made other endorsements including the Maryland Senate race? And let me remind you the editorial endorsing Harris had been drafted. To say the Editorial Board, not to mention most of the staff at the WaPo were majorly pissed is an understatement. The announcement of course made no mention of Amazon or Blue Origin but within hours guess what? High ranking officials from Blue Origin met with Trump after a rally in Texas! And that’s not all:
Trump met with Blue Origin chief executive officer David Limp and vice-president of government relations Megan Mitchell, the Associated Press reported.
Meanwhile, CNN reported that the Amazon CEO, Andy Jassy, had also recently reached out to speak with the former president by phone.
As I said earlier new(ish) Publisher Will Lewis (himself a controversial hire by Bezos) has tried to take the blame but few are buying it. Everyone including the others at the WaPo starting with the Editorial Board knows damn well who killed the Harris endorsement. Worse for Bezos and the WaPo the reason why has become apparent. Consequences? We’ll have to wait to see how much fallout there will be but it’s started with Robert Kagan speaking out about Amazon’s Any Jassy who reached out to speak with Trump by phone:
Those reported overtures were eviscerated by Washington Post editor-at-large and longtime columnist Robert Kagan, who resigned on Friday. On Saturday, he argued that the meeting Blue Origin executives had with Trump would not have taken place if the Post had endorsed the Democratic vice-president as it planned.
“Trump waited to make sure that Bezos did what he said he was going to do – and then met with the Blue Origin people,” Kagan told the Daily Beast on Saturday. “Which tells us that there was an actual deal made, meaning that Bezos communicated, or through his people, communicated directly with Trump, and they set up this quid pro quo.”
At least some amount of ruckus has been kicked up. Both current and former employees are speaking out, many on the record:
The former Washington Post journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, who broke the Watergate story, called the decision “disappointing, especially this late in the electoral process”.
The former Washington Post executive editor Marty Baron said in a post on X, “This is cowardice with democracy as its casualty”.
The cartoon team at the paper published a dark formless image protesting against the non-endorsement decision, playing on the “democracy dies in darkness” slogan that the Post adopted in 2017, five years after its purchase by Bezos.
It remains to be seen how many others high up in the WaPo news/editorial structure will follow Kagan’s example and not only resign in protest but fire broadsides at Bezos as to why. Worse, as I’ve noted (and Ursula recently wrote about) other news outlets are scared of Trump. This SHOULD be a dominant news story this week but I doubt it will be. The bosses in the corner suites and boardrooms of news outlets and much of the “talent” are simply to afraid of Trump to do more than give this a brief mention. In case Harris wins, so they can someday when writing their memoirs include a mealy-mouth tidbit about “standing up to Trump’s attempted intimidation of the media.”
In today’s fantasy I see the entire Editorial Board finding another major newspaper willing to print their endorsement in its entirety. And have a combined letter of resignation to post with it with the promise that if Bezos throws a fit a copy has already been sent to him!
Well, I guess we know now who has bezos’ balls in his back pocket.
Hey bezos! You obviously don’t have the cojones (literally I guess) to own a news outlet so sell it to someone who does. Like the other ball-less p.o.s. who owns zitter, you people should not be having anything to do with making sure accurate information gets to the public. One day…like now…it could be vital.
Worthless p.o.s. oligarch. Sure hope V.P. Harris has a plan to make these pieces of shit pay out the nose–they owe a LOT due to not paying their fair share for decades. Time to make them squeal like the pigs they are.
How do I cancel my subscription?
There also might be that $10 billion dollar bid to put the Pentagon computer services under one cloud involved. The contract after Trump interfered was awarded to Microsoft, though they were less capable. I haven’t heard much about it since Amazon appealed, but there might be more than rocket ships involved here.
yup. Fuck bezos and fuck Amazon. And fuck Chump.
There’s one (maybe more, but oone whichI use a lot) that lets you attach a comment to your signature. I waited until that one had the “F*** Bezos” petition, and added this aomment: “When you stood up to that dude with the dick pix, I thought at least you had some courage. Boy, was I wrong!” He may never see it, but at least it made me feel a little better.
I suppose it’s not impossible that the kerfuffle will help in the long run – certainly more people will hear of he killed endorsement than would ever have known of it if it had just gone through.