This.
And, along with the endorsement, the fact that Bezos tried to quash it; and if they mysteriously lose their jobs, that’ll be why.
They may lose them anyway, of course. But if so, I suspect they were going to in any case.
– I suppose he can get it wiped from the website after the fact. But not from the print paper (I believe there’s still a print paper), and not from everybody’s screenshots.
ETA: if anybody does see it show up, screenshot it quick, and alert the rest of us.
Alternatively, publish an OP-ed from each of the individual members of the editorial board about why Trump should not be allowed anywhere the White House. The message being while Washington post editorial board might not endorse Harris every member of the board does.
Sure, but it’s all talking about Jeff Bezos, not some other fella. Nice job stealing the spotlight, if, indeed, that was the plan.
I was hoping his money could make it a worthy competitor to the New York Times, which has become the 800 pound gorilla of American newspapers. From that column of March 1, 2020,
The company [The New York Times] now has more digital subscribers than The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and the 250 local Gannett papers combined, according to the most recent data. And The Times employs 1,700 journalists — a huge number in an industry where total employment nationally has fallen to somewhere between 20,000 and 38,000.
Is the Washington Post Guild still a going concern? I’d love to see them publish the endorsement. Amazon is famously hostile to unions, and I wonder how heavily that factors in Bezos’s decision.
I ask if they’re still a going concern because their website looks like it hasn’t been updated in years.
Edit: looks like they’re active, and have put out a statement:
So much for the proud days of Woodward and Bernstein! I already cancelled my NYT sub when they srarted sanewashing Trump, and this morning I canelled the WaPo too. Wrote them a letter calling them cowards, which no one will ever read.
At least the LA Times editor had the decency to resign.
Yeah, the time to decide to quit endorsing a candidate is after the election cycle ends, not 2 weeks before an election. Shameless asshole decisionmaker.
Cancelled my subscription to that shit rag a year ago. Fuck Jeff Bezos. I don’t buy shit from amazon anymore either.
That’s on xitter. Have you found it anywhere else?
There’s a little more info here, though a lot of it relies on the tweet.
Thanks.
Good to see at least one resignation over this; though the question is, where are they (and the LA Times resignees) going to go?
Any of the world’s billionaires want to start a paper and then stay the hell out of it?
Wonder whether they can get a letter or op ed into the paper saying why they’re resigning.
Why start a paper? Most of the established ones have been sold recently; the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, etc. Few people are willing to throw money away by endlessly supporting one.
I wonder if “Well we had a Harris endorsement, but Bezos axed it” is going to be just as good as if the Washington Post published its endorsement anyway. Certainly, this story seems to be getting a lot of traction, and might reach people who otherwise might not hear it.
Yeah, it might be better for the Harris campaign; the Post endorsing her would be met with, “Of course they endorsed the Democratic nominee.” But this controversy might be enough to piss off a few people and motivate them better to support her.
Supposedly the reason is The Washington Post endorsed Clinton in 2016 and lost a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft because Trump was mad at Bezos.
That makes no sense because:
Washington Post endorses Joe Biden for president
An incident in 2016 wouldn’t be the sole reason for them not endorsing in 2024, otherwise they wouldn’t have endorsed in 2020 either.
Dunno what to tell you except that is what is being reported.
In a 2019 lawsuit, Amazon claimed it lost a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract to Microsoft because Trump used “improper pressure … “to harm his perceived political enemy” Bezos. - SOURCE
I’m sure it’s a factor, but there is no way that it’s “the reason” for the change.
And that is not “what is being reported”. I gave a cite earlier that it’s a concern for current and future contracts that is the motivation, not something that happened 8 years ago.
The reason is, when it’s possible that a Putin or Erdogan will be getting into power, the oligarchs want to be on the right side. That’s the reason. Bezos doesn’t want Amazon to lose contracts, and he knows that Harris won’t work in such a corrupt and craven manner, so there’s no reason not to piss her off.
ETA: I didn’t really mean to throw such red meat to you folks, this just really pissed me off. I’m actually on vacation, so, once again, I’ll be following along, but not posting much. Step away to do a hike and there are 35 responses! Crazy.