As someone who used to write regularly for the newspaper, it has been a long time since I have had an occasion to say this but . . . Bravo, Washington Post.
This week, the Post announced that not only would it not endorse a candidate this year, but it would not do so in the future. Over two decades ago, I wrote a column calling for newspapers to end the practice of all election endorsements. (Yes, before all things seemed to turn on how you feel about Donald Trump). I have continued to push the press to abandon this pernicious practice.
When I first came out against political endorsements, the media had not taken the plunge into advocacy journalism, which is now strangling the life out of this industry.
As former New York Times writer (and now Howard University journalism professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones has declared that “all journalism is activism.”
After a series of interviews with over 75 media leaders, Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, reaffirmed this shift. As Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, stated: “Objectivity has got to go.”
The result has been the plummeting of trust in the media to an all-time low. Revenues and readership are falling as outlets struggle to survive. Yet, reporters are still refusing to reconsider the abandonment of neutrality and objectivity.
Recently, Post owner Jeff Bezos brought in Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis, who promptly delivered a truth bomb in the middle of the newsroom by telling the staff, “Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”
The response was calls for Lewis and other editors to be canned. These reporters would rather give up their very jobs than their bias.
Now Lewis is under fire again after announcing, “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
The Washington Post Guild immediately went ballistic at the thought of not openly supporting Kamala Harris, though many would point out that the Post has hardly been subtle in its coverage on that point.
The Guild expressed alarm at the thought of leaving readers to reach their own conclusions “a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election.” According to the staff, the Post needs “to help guide readers,” and “according to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos.”
Perish the thought that the Post would start to raise free-range readers left to reach their own conclusions.
Former executive editor Martin “Marty” Baron and others went into absolute vapors. Baron declared, “This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.”
Others retreated into anonymity to denounce their management, with some making precisely the case for not doing such endorsement: “It very disingenuously draws false equivalencies. This is not, for example, Kamala Harris vs. Mitt Romney. This is Kamala Harris against someone who tried to disenfranchise the electorate last time.”
It is ironic since, at the time, Romney was portrayed as a fascist, as were prior Republican nominees.
One of the most curious responses came from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I, Vt.): “This is what Oligarchy is about. Jeff Bezos, the 2nd wealthiest person in the world and the owner of the Washington Post, overrides his editorial board and refuses to endorse Kamala.”
An oligarchy is defined as “government by the few.” That is precisely what the public sees in an effective state media and why “Let’s Go Brandon!” became a type of “Yankee Doodling” of the political and media establishment.
Sanders’s objection is that the owner decided not to exercise the power of the few but instead left the choice to voters. According to Sanders, that is the definition of oligarchy in declining to act as an oligarch.
As discussed years ago, the decision of newspapers to engage in political endorsements has had a corrosive influence for years. It destroys the separation between newspapers and those who are supposed to be the subjects of their investigatory and journalistic work.
My prior column called for the termination of not just presidential endorsements, though it is a good start. There should be a commitment to total neutrality in all elections, from judges to senators to presidents.
The Washington Post is not alone. The Los Angeles Times has declined to make an endorsement, which also led to a staff revolt.
The decision not to endorse in this election could prove a critical moment for mainstream media in turning the corner on the era of advocacy journalism. While skeptical, I genuinely hope that Bezos has decided to reconsider the course of the Post. We need the Post and the rest of the mainstream media. The media plays a critical role in our democracy as a neutral source of information on government abuse and corruption.
However, that role also needs the trust of the public. Otherwise, as Lewis told the Post staff, “no one is reading your stuff.”
That is evident from the very closeness of this election. After years of unrelenting anti-Trump coverage and a billion-dollar war chest to sell Harris to the public, the country is still divided right down the middle.
The Post and other papers are writing for each other and core Democratic readers. The rest of America is moving on to new media on social media and other sources.
For those of us who loved the old Post and want our “Fourth Estate” to be strong, this is a meaningful start.
So Bravo, Washington Post.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
This column ran in Fox.com.
Jonathan,
Was it that hard for Jeff Bezos to make that decision? If in reality A.I. made that decision for him by running the Stats and Predictions. Moving forward, will A.I. be making Editorial Decisions made on the basis of; Stats, Predictions, Sales, Media observations, and Polls (i.e.: mimic the Human editor(s) – even better)?
IMO: Bezos didn’t make a Ben Bradlee decision (gut-decision) to pull the endorsement. A.I. helped him to come to the conclusion that it was in the best interest of the Organization to do so. So that said, Bezos himself has a scapegoat in A.I. for making his move.
A.I. was hedging his bet. You can count on it.
P.S.: It’s ‘A Brave New World’ – A.I.
It’s called: AI Stratagisim – Used by AI Strategist (@ Amazon):
Re: What AI Strategists Do: Roles, Responsibilities, and Challenges
https://www.profbanafa.com/2024/08/what-ai-strategists-do-roles.html#:~:text=AI%20strategists%20are%20tasked%20with,in%20detection%20rates%20over%20time.
[Bezos] He has all that A.I. power at his fingertips, and he doesn’t use it. (???)
The Guy has access to volumes-and-volumes of books published throughout History.
He started as a Book Seller! His A.I. Library dwarfs all the rest.
Tell me something? Who’s Richer: Musk ($$$x) or Bezos (KnowledgeX)
Bezos is the Rocket Man (Not Musk)
Musk is the Space Oddity
* Marketing?
Well , out here in flyover country the decisions of the LA Times and the Washington Post to not endorse Ms. Harris seems to be a non-event. Most of the people out here tend to make their own decisions day in and day out and don’t always have an ear to the ground trying to decipher what is coming out of Washington D.C. before they act.
On the other hand the Trump Sitdown with Mr. Rogan for about 3 hours seems to be having more of an impact. Brilliant move by Trump and Rogan, by the way.
I would also agree with the Professor that one can be hopeful that this will cause a new rise in the print media. But the staff will need to change and a clear distinction between news stories and editorial pages needs to be delineated and adhered to.
I like both electronic and print media and would love to see both vibrant and unbiased.
GEB,
I was a little surprised of the non-endorsements. Thinking on it, better to give no endorsement than a clearly losing one.
Yeah, three hours Trump and Rogan talking about whatever came to mind. Can you imagine Biden or Harris being able to pull that one off?
Will some media untether themselves from the DNC? Or are they just waiting for another Trump admin to attack? As we all know, for some news outlets, Trump was a big boost and may have even saved a few of them.
Just when the elitist so called journalist at The Post were so close to saving America from itself Bezos pulls the plug. The caterwauling from the east and west coast woke me up from a sound sleep last night. The Pinky on the east coast asked the Brain on the west coast, “What are we going to do today Brain.”The Brain responded, “The same thing we do everyday Pinky, CONTROL THE WORLD!!!”
The reason that the show finally ended is because The Brain completely lost it, resigned and went into a tantrum when he realized that all of his hopes to CONTOL THE WORLD!!! would never come to fruition. Oh woe be he. Oh woe be he.
As per usual, when progressives do not get their way they act out like a cranky toddler.
I’m 87 years old, and I cannot remember a time when either the Post or the New York Times were not in the pocket of the Democratic Party.
THEY STILL ARE. I called this yesterday: Nothing has changed. The damage is done. But they’re doing this so that they can say “see, we’re impartial”. It’s complete marketing B.S. designed to get the very reaction that Turley is providing.
The “pernicious practice,” as Turley calls it, is hardly confined to whether a newspaper endorses a candidate. In fact, by eliminating such endorsements, the editorial folks might feel more entitled to spin their biases in the news reporting which, by the way, is common today and just as pernicious as a political endorsement. Since the beginning of the Republic – and before, during colonial days – pamphlets and newspapers have always had a say in political matters. The public came to recognize this and people favored and disfavored biases accordingly. What’s new in this picture is the emergence of the Internet and social media. If someone on social media says the world is flat, immediately others, including experts, will set that person straight. You can’t do that with a newspaper. A letter to the editor may be published if and when the paper chooses tom publish but even that loses its significance when the matter addressed is days or weeks removed. Newspapers today are the mom and pop stores about to be crushed and put out of business by the supermarket giants in the form of social media. The appearance of Trump on the political scene has hastened this otherwise inevitable change and reinforced the value of social media in preserving democracy, that is, the people’s choice, in a world dominated by wealthy media magnates.
jjc posted In fact, by eliminating such endorsements, the editorial folks might feel more entitled to spin their biases in the news reporting which, by the way, is common today and just as pernicious as a political endorsement.
Well done! This announcement is just their beard. It’s not what they SAY – it’s what they DO every day.
Whether it’s Trump, Global Warming Is Killing Us, Gun Violence And Assault Weapons Of War. Their response is predictable.
NATO should finish the job of liberating Ukraine.
All that’s required is the consensus of the member states.
You make that sound so easy.
What could stop the war is if the Ukraine would stop taking orders from neocons in the West and the US and consider Russia’s latest rhetoric that they are willing to compromise with the Ukraine for peace at the BRICS summit.
It is being reported there are 51,000 cases of Ukrainian troops deserting their posts in the first nine months of 2024. It is expected to double the desertion rate of 2023.
Meanwhile, US lawmakers aka neocons are pushing the Ukrainian government to lower the draft age from 25 to 18 years of age so more young men can go die for a war that did not have to be.
“if the Ukraine would stop taking orders from neocons in the West and the US”
I don’t have it at my fingertips, but I read a credible column yesterday that claimed that the population of Ukraine has been reduced by 20 – 25% over the course of this war. Of course, given the prime age range for soldiers, those losses have no doubt been heavily concentrated among young men. That doesn’t bode well for the future of either the Ukrainian economy, or its society. On the brighter side, maybe Ukraine will become a primary tourist destination for young men of other nations…
^^ Paid military-industrial complex troll. Ignore. ^^
Maybe all of these outlets are realizing that at some point in time they might be accused of “disinformation-misinformation” by the very people they supported? It all comes down to survival.
“Maybe all of these outlets are realizing that at some point in time they might be accused of “disinformation-misinformation” by the very people they supported?”
Nah. That presupposes some real insight about their audiences and themselves on the part of those outlets and their owners. The line staff of those two organizations are correct about one thing: this change from SOP is nothing but an act of cowardice; the fear that a Trump victory will threaten the wallets and power of the owners. Take that fear away, and these turncoats would quickly resume advocating Marxism and denigrating anyone opposing it. The only thing that might cause a permanent change would be for several MSM organisms (WaPo and CNN, for example) to turn belly-up and disappear. I’m hopeful, but not optimistic, about such a turn of events.
The funny thing is they believe their endorsement matters. Is there any evidence that a truly undecided voter will be influenced by what the far left WaPoo editorial board thinks? It’s fair to assume the vast majority of the people who read WaPoo are going to vote for Harris whether the editors endorse her or not. They’re preaching to the choir.
Besides, the same editors who will no longer endorse candidates will be the ones who decide which opinion pieces to publish. My guess is they will continue to amplify the opinions of far left crackpots – academics and activists – almost exclusively.
They torched their credibility long ago. We all know the editors want Democrats to win. I doubt their endorsement, or non-endorsement, matters.
You are correct in that those on the left will vote that way…I see the outrage by the “opinion makers” as their awareness/fear that they are insignificant/powerless in their lofty perches of elite progressivism. They actually had convinced themselves that they could control human thought and Bezos has officially muzzled them as the voices of truth (I know, that was a hard one to print) as they see it and they are as outraged as a toddler who has his cookies taken away.
This appears to have come from Bezos himself. I suspect it says nothing about WaPo. Bezos has a lot of business with the Federal Government. If WaPo endorsed Harris and Trump wins those contracts might be at risk. I read this as a sign that Bezos believes Trump will win.
Daniel, Yours may be the closest shot to the bullseye. The MSM is not “turning the corner”, media is still populated by idiots and mockingbirds. A few higher ups seem to have a more clear view of reality, that’s all.
A thinking human would not object to the LA Times owner’s proposal to present to facts and let the readers make up their own minds. Proof that far too many leftist media people are severely narcissistic.
Don’t you just love it when progressives run smack up against reality?
WaPo is going full A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) via:
Project Metis (Amazon’s belated answer to ChatGPT and Gemini),
Alexa,
Claude AI,
Amazon Lex,
Re: Amazon’s AI programs for Alexa include Claude AI and Amazon Lex:
The new and improved version of Alexa, codenamed “Remarkable Alexa”, will be powered by Anthropic’s Claude AI model. Amazon’s in-house AI struggled to respond to user prompts and process language, so the company turned to Claude as an off-the-shelf solution.
Ref:
https://aws.amazon.com/ai/generative-ai/
https://www.techzine.eu/news/applications/121582/project-metis-is-amazons-belated-answer-to-chatgpt-and-gemini/
Don’t worry, They’ll keep a handful of Humans around to take the blame when SHTF.
““Remarkable Alexa”, will be powered by Anthropic’s Claude AI model”
So, this will be gender-fluid AI ;-?
Saw this in seemingly over the top assessment in a post at another site:
“Oh, NO!!!!!!!! “Washington Post Not Endorsing a Presidential Candidate in 2024” The DC regional Democrats are now rudderless!!!! How can a stooge be expected to perform under such circumstances?”
However, it appears that sentiment is exactly what the “Guild” had in mind as quoted in Turley’s piece:
“The Guild expressed alarm at the thought of leaving readers to reach their own conclusions “a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election.” According to the staff, the Post needs “to help guide readers,”
The mind is boggled at the image of disorientated lemmings running wildly in the streets of DC as Joe plays the fiddle in the WH and Kamala yells at the lemmings ‘You are at the right rally!’
“According to the staff, the Post needs “to help guide readers,” ”
Someone should guide those staffers, right off the edge of a cliff.
WaPo is going to have to do far more than this to reclaim any of it’s former glory (?). Still, the Left is losing it’s collective (right word) on this. NPR is in melt down. Maybe if they actually edit some of the columns – not everyone can/should write editorials
Stephen King posted on X that he was cancelling his subscription. Someone replied and asked if he was going to take his books off Amazon.
And now the Nation is withdrawing it’s Harris endorsement, but this is over Gaza. SMH. https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kamala-harris-counter-endorsement/
“Stephen King posted on X that he was cancelling his subscription. Someone replied and asked if he was going to take his books off Amazon.”
That is golden.
J
“Stephen King posted on X that he was cancelling his subscription.”
King is a strange critter. His publicly expressed political views more very frequently conflict with the personalities and actions of protagonists in his novels. I wonder if he is schizo. That probably wouldn’t be much of a liability for a horror author.
Perhaps Bezos is just leery of “aggressively injecting himself into the presidential race”.
It is a good sign but hardly enough. The bias in most media outlets is so deep that more must be done if they want credibility. Remember the study Harvard (in conjunction with another) did in 2015 or 2016 where they found that most media outlets studied had over 90% negative stories on Trump. The only “balanced” one was Fox, which was 48/52% positive/negative. It has not changed, in fact, I believe gotten worse. What the media needs to do is go through its editorial and reporting staffs and start canning people who cannot be objective. Just like the FBI.
It has to start in the schools, that is where the initial brainwashing and indoctrination starts. Until we cleanse our schools and universities of the infestation of marxism/progressivism, we can expect no change,
Good for the Post and Bezos/Lewis. Tuff for the Left Wing DEM Activist Reporters, they don’t like it please please resign. Don’t like it there is the door. Go work for the Woke Leftist Atlantic? The Post is a business not a University Newpaper or part of any political party. Perhaps now the Post will bring in real reporters who can write the truth not for their friends or the DEM party or stories for the DC Elite?
Paul Harvey was popular with his radio broadcast “The Rest Of The Story”. That byline stares advocacy journalism in the face. It says want popularity? Quit treating your readers like chumps.
There seems to be a shortage of reporters of the objective sort. Schools are only producing well-trained sheeple. We need to reform our school systems from top to bottom first,
Just maybe, Bezos is hedging his bets. Sometimes these big shots, e.g. Bezos and Musk, do think. Only the purists, whether for money or destruction like Gates and Soros are still all in.
This is what I am thinking also, I believe they have a feeling that Trump will win this and they are straddling that squishy middle. I think all of these “non-indorsements” are a sure sign that many see change coming and they do not want to be seen totally on the left at this point.
LA Times and WaPO won’t endorse Kamala.
That is odd.
Two major liberal newspapers who have excoriated Trump for years. And who have long endorsed D presidential candidates. But now both owners put the kibosh on an official endorsement.
I read the owners’ explanations, which amount to: We want to let readers make their own decisions. (As if any independent reader wouldn’t do so.) But why now? Why *this* election?
Something else is going on here. But I have no idea what it is.
Ah, Sam,
To quote the immortal words from the first verse of Buffalo Springfield’s song, “For What It’s Worth”: “There’s something happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear.”
I’m gonna hazard a guess that what’s going on is simply this. The MSM and pundits have been fairly screeching that if DJT should get re-elected, he’s gonna “disappear” gays, journalists, etc. They’ve bought into their hysteria so thoroughly that they actually believe it.
These sudden non-endorsement policies are simply an attempt to stave off that very real “reality” they’ve convinced themselves of.
Lately I’ve arrived at the conclusion that, rhetorically, Trump is a prize-fighter/pro wrestler. Prize-fighters and pro wrestlers both do lots of trash-talking. Trump’s “trash-talking” is all about getting a rise out of people, getting people to talk, and pushing critical issues to the forefront of public consciousness – to their chagrin, not even the MSM can resist what he does, and therein lies his brilliance.
Someone aughtta gather up all the MSM and pundit’s meltdowns every time he trash-talks, produce a pay-per-view event from them, and charge between $25 and $50 a head, and a veritable fortune could be made.
Jeff Bezos made a business decision in light of his WaPo business hemorrhaging money. One could say WaPi is failing due to its darkness.
OTOH, Joe Rogan is a very smart businessman
Uploaded to YouTube 11 hours ago, with 10 million views thus far, and the 225k comments section reflect a far different voice than the limp voices of the MSM and the pathetic DNC trolls
The MSM like WaPo and Progressives like WaPo editors are done. Bravo to Joe Rogan. Neil Young sends his sour grapes. Kamala Harris likely needs to be medicated with Ativan after seeing Trump speak for 3 hours extemporaneously
😉
Estovir,
Three hours! Unscripted!!!!
Harris would of showed up late, gone all in on World Salad City (HT David Alexrod) and left early.
Oh! Did you see the Beyonce concert for Harris? Neither did all the people who paid tickets to see Beyonce sing.