Neutrality is one of the basic principles of journalism. Especially true for publications in countries that issue sermons to everyone in the world on principles of democracy and freedom of speech. The second-largest democracy, the United States, however, is witnessing its liberals going bonkers against billionaire Jeff Bezos-owned The Washington Post, which has traditionally been endorsing the Democrat candidates in presidential elections but decided to discontinue this tradition and stay neutral this time.
The anger over Jeff Bezos’s decision to block an endorsement of the presidential candidate Kamala Harris has reached its pinnacle with more than 2 lakh people cancelling their online subscription to The Washington Post. This number accounts for about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of approximately 2.5 million subscribers, including print.
An X user David Buchbinder cancelled his WaPo subscription and said: “@JeffBezos is weak, and unprincipled. Probably time to exit the Amazon effin’ universe…”
Another Democrat supporter said: “Bezos made a huge mistake morally. Financially it’s doubtful that he will suffer. But he is deplorable none the less.”
Bezos made a huge mistake morally. Financially it's doubtful that he will suffer.
— Nicolette Resisting Trump Since 2015💙 (@IVLoveForever) October 26, 2024
But he is deplorable none the less. https://t.co/2nFZs61Rx0 pic.twitter.com/dPFQkNftvg
Renowned author Stephan King also announced the cancellation of his WaPo subscription as he said: “After 5 years, I have canceled my subscription to the Washington Post.”
After 5 years, I have canceled my subscription to the Washington Post.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 25, 2024
Besides, the mass subscription cancellation, several journalists at The Washington Post have also registered their ‘protest’ against the paper’s sudden decision to shun its pro-democrat bias. David E. Hoffman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning contributing editor, and Molly Roberts, an editorial writer who covers technology and society, have resigned from the newspaper’s editorial board.
In a letter to David Shipley, editorial page editor, Hoffman said: “Under our watch at The Post, no one would be lost in silence. Until Friday, I assumed we would apply the same values and principles to an editorial endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in the candidacy of Donald Trump. I find it untenable and unconscionable that we have lost our voice at this perilous moment.”
Meanwhile, Molly Roberts took to X to express here resentment over Jeff Bezos’s decision and said: “To be clear, the decision not to endorse the election was not the editorial board’s. It was (you can read the reporting) Jeff Bezos’s. By registering my dissent, I don’t intent to impugn the conduct of my colleagues, all of whom were put in nearly impossible positions.”
“…because the imperative to endorse Kamala Harris over Donald Trump is about as morally clear as it gets. Worse, our silence is exactly what Donald Trump wants: for the media, for us, to keep quiet,” Roberts added in her statement.
— Molly Roberts (@mollylroberts) October 28, 2024
The sheer discontent of these ‘journalists’ over their publication though suddenly but finally waking up to uphold journalistic ethics and shun bias, demonstrates how The Washington Post has over the years been a propaganda machine for the Democrats, all while pretending to be progressive and liberal.
Meanwhile, over a dozen of WaPo columnists including Eugene Robinson have issued a joint statement loathing WaPo discontinuing presidential candidate endorsement not only for this but all future presidential elections. They called the decision a “terrible mistake”.
“…It represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love. This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them — the precise points The Post made in endorsing Trump’s opponents in 2016 and 2020. There is no contradiction between The Post’s important role as an independent newspaper and its practice of making political endorsements, both as a matter of guidance to readers and as a statement of core beliefs. That has never been more true than in the current campaign. An independent newspaper might someday choose to back away from making presidential endorsements. But this isn’t the right moment, when one candidate is advocating positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution,” the statement reads.
A noticeable aspect in the meltdown of The Washington Post ‘journalists’ is how blatantly the WaPo reporters and columnists are exposing their lack of journalistic ethics in the garb of taking a stand for ‘democratic values’, ‘moral’ imperative, and serving the self-proclaimed ‘higher purpose’ of stopping Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Journalists are expected to stick to the principles of objectivity and impartiality as well as hold all governments accountable for their actions and policies rather than advocating for politicians or their parties. However, these WaPo ‘journalists’ prioritising political allegiance over journalistic integrity demonstrates that under the pretext of being an ‘independent’ news outlet, WaPo has been running as no less than a propaganda arsenal of the Democratic Party.
OpIndia has time and again exposed The Washington Post’s biased reportage, particularly, in the Indian context. While the outraged WaPo journalists are talking about preserving democratic values, the publication was recently accused of colluding with the Liberal Party government in Canada to further its mendacious anti-India narrative. While there are numerous incidents wherein WaPo indulged in biased reporting and peddling propaganda, the very fact that it platforms Rana Ayyub, a donation fraud accused and a known anti-Modi detractor, makes it clear why the credibility of The Washington Post has tanked.
Jeff Bezos defends decision to discontinue presidential endorsements amidst depleting subscriber base and staff resignations
Amidst the continuous fall in subscription count of The Washington Post, Amazon founder and WaPo owner Jeff Bezos penned an opinion piece defending his decision to go neutral in this and future presidential elections in the US. In the article titled The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media, Bezos argued that endorsements have no practical impact and that doing so adds only to the perception that the US’s mainstream media is unreliable.
Admitting that the credibility of WaPo and the legacy media in general is continuously falling, Bezos said that a “victim mentality” will not help. “We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.”
Addressing the questions over the timing of the decision to stop presidential endorsements altogether, Bezos said, “By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction. I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.”
He further clarified that “no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here. Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision.”
Bezos added that David Limp, the CEO of one of his companies Blue Origin met Donald Trump on the day of the announcement of blocking Kamala Harris’s endorsement, however, the meeting with Trump was quickly scheduled one and no one including Limp and Bezos knew about it, he added.
Democracy dies in darkness when newspapers stop being stooges of Democrats?
While Jeff Bezos has finally decided not to leave The Washington Post on “autopilot” mode and let it fade into irrelevance, all these years on autopilot mode, WaPo has lost credibility by roping in absolutely biased propagandists masquerading as journalists, the so-called American right-wing has already lost any faith left in the legacy media including WaPo, the publication is now facing wrath of its own loyal support base for finally deciding not to be a democrat/liberal mouthpiece but actually become unbiased and credible news outlet.
Liberals, not just in the US, but across the world share this trait, they talk about democratic values and press freedom, liberty and whatnot but only till they control the things, do they reveal their true ‘fascist’ character in the face of slight deviance by anyone from their established and control ‘system’. Only liberals and wokes can loathe the media for being unbiased or at least trying to become impartial. For this lot, fearless reporting, bringing out the truth and holding government leaders accountable etc is only commendable when the media is questioning and targeting the ‘right-wing’ or the conservatives, however, even the quest to take a neutral stand and not even going explicitly against the liberals triggers massive outrage and hatred against anyone including one of their own.
Even WaPo’s cartoon team (no pun intended) is mocking Bezos’s decision to restore neutrality in the newspaper as its illustrator Ann Telnaes created a gloomy, formless graphic that is evidently designed to mock the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan that the outlet adopted during Bezos’s ownership. Clearly, democracy dies in darkness when a newspaper deviates from being a supporter of a liberal party but democracy thrives when the same news outlet endorses the democrat leader and eulogies to the Democratic Party.
