More than 200,000 readers hit the ‘unsubscribe’ button, leaving The Washington Post scrambling to explain itself as the The Washington velnerable institution decides to sit out the presidential endorsement game for the first time in over three decades.
The publication has found itself caught in a political mess, with accusations of billionaire influence from owner Jeff Bezos, journalistic integrity on the line, and a newsroom in revolt.
Here’s everything that you need to know:
Why are people boycotting The Washington Post & what does Jeff Bezos have to do with it?
Jeff Bezos, the multi-billionaire owner of The Washington Post and founder of Amazon, dropped a bombshell that sent shockwaves through the media landscape. The paper’s editorial board had apparently drafted an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris in the upcoming presidential election, only to have it quashed at the eleventh hour.
According to the New York Times, senior news and opinion leaders at The Washington Post flew to Miami in late September to meet with Bezos, to discuss his reservations about the paper issuing an endorsement. However, ultimately Bezos axed the endorsement from being published.
The timing couldn’t have been more suspicious. On the very same day the Post announced it wouldn’t be endorsing any candidate, executives from Bezos’ aerospace company, Blue Origin, were spotted rubbing elbows with Donald Trump after a campaign speech in Austin, Texas.
“It’s certainly the owner’s prerogative to adopt a general no-endorsement policy, and it might well have been reasonable if it had been done outside of the political cycle (such endorsements long ago stopped swaying voters), but coming 11 days before the election, it gave the appearance of cowering before a wannabe dictator to protect Bezos’s business interests,” wrote Dana Milbank, a columnist at The Washington Post.
What has been the reaction?
The Post’s newsroom lowkey went into chaos mode and did not hold back on their opinions on the matter. Eighteen opinion columnists penned a scathing rebuke, calling the decision “a terrible mistake.”
The cartoon team at The Washington Post didn’t hold back in their response to the fiasco. They released a striking, shadowy illustration titled “Democracy Dies in Darkness”, riffing off the paper’s own slogan that debuted back in 2017 — just a month after Trump took office.
One third of the editorial board even decided to step down, with Pulitzer Prize winner David E. Hoffman telling CNN, “I cannot sit here any longer on the editorial board and write those editorials while we ourselves have given in to silence.”
NPR reported that by Monday’s lunch hour, a staggering 200,000 readers had hit the eject button on their digital subscriptions, according to insider sources at the paper.
We’re talking about roughly eight per cent of the Post’s total paid readership of 2.5 million, including the old-school print devotees.
“History will not look kindly on the group of journalists who made the decision to abstain from endorsing a candidate as the country is on the brink of fascism #democracydiesindarkness,” said one user on X.
Who does the boycott actually effect?
Amidst the outrage, some voices called for consideration of the writers involved. Milbank urged readers to reconsider cancelling their subscriptions, pointing out that it would hurt journalists more than Bezos.
“Boycotting The Post will hurt my colleagues and me,” Milbank wrote in an op-ed piece on the publication.
“The more cancellations there are, the more jobs will be lost, and the less good journalism there will be.”
Users on the internet share this concern with Milbank, especially as we edge closer to the U.S. election.
To their credit, The Washington Post hasn’t shied away from the controversy. They even took to TikTok to explain the situation, cheekily noting, “A lot of billionaires have been at a lot of fancy parties where Trump happens to be to stay in his orbit.”
However, for some it’s clear that the trust has already been broken.
“I’ve canceled my subscription to The Washington Post. I’ve been getting the paper since 1998. Jeff Bezos with all his money is running scared of Trump. The owner of the Post, by omission, endorsed the Great Orange Dictator, therefore, I CAN’T trust its coverage anymore. Bye,” explained a disheartened reader on X.
Has Bezos said anything?
Bezos finally said his piece on the situation three days after the news dropped in a nine paragraph response published on The Washington Post on Monday night.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement’. None,” he said.
“I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it,” Bezos wrote. “That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.”
The billionaire also denied that the decision was made for any “quid pro quo” opportunity with Trump, ensuing that neither “campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision.”
Whether or not you take his word, one thing is clear: the paper faces a massive uphill battle to regain the trust of not only its readers, but its journalists as well.
Lead image: Getty Images/ The Washington Post/ @Grungeman0510 via X
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