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The tales that matter on cash and politics within the race for the White Home
Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, is dealing with criticism from workers at The Washington Put up following the newspaper’s determination to not endorse a candidate for president for the primary time in 36 years.
The newspaper’s editorial web page workers had written an endorsement of Kamala Harris for US president, however it was not printed following a choice by Bezos, the Put up’s proprietor, to vary its coverage on endorsements, based on an article within the paper.
The reversal of many years of coverage comes lower than two weeks earlier than the presidential election, during which Harris and former president Donald Trump are working neck-and-neck, based on polls.
There have been tensions between Trump and Bezos throughout his time within the White Home. Amazon filed a lawsuit in 2019 claiming it had been denied a $10bn US defence contract due to “escalating and overt stress” from the then president. The defence division later awarded the so-called Jedi contract to a rival bid from Microsoft.
Sir Will Lewis, The Washington Put up chief government, outlined the reasoning behind the coverage change in an opinion article during which he acknowledged that it might be learn as “an abdication of accountability” however added: “We don’t see it that manner.”
Nevertheless, the newspaper’s guild stated the choice raised considerations that “administration interfered with the world of our members in editorial”. The paper had suffered subscriber cancellations in consequence, it added.
By Saturday morning, 17 of the Put up’s columnists had signed their names to an editorial calling the choice “a horrible mistake” at a time “when one candidate is advocating positions that immediately threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Structure”.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the reporters who revealed the Watergate scandal within the pages of the newspaper, stated the choice “ignores the Washington Put up’s personal overwhelming reportorial proof on the menace Donald Trump poses to democracy”.
On Saturday Lewis issued a press release saying that among the reporting of the state of affairs was “inaccurate”. Bezos “was not despatched, didn’t learn and didn’t opine on any draft” of an endorsement for president, he stated.
“As writer, I don’t imagine in presidential endorsements,” he added. “We’re an impartial newspaper and will help our readers’ capability to make up their very own minds.”
This would be the first time that the Put up has not endorsed a president since 1988.
Lewis wrote in Friday’s article that the choice marked a return to the paper’s roots. He famous that the Put up had not endorsed both Richard Nixon or John F Kennedy within the 1960 election, and it had additionally determined to not weigh in on Nixon’s re-election marketing campaign in 1972.
Lewis, a former government at Information Corp and The Telegraph, was appointed by Bezos final yr to attempt to arrest mounting losses and a decline in readership.
Folks near Lewis have stated up to now that he’s in common contact with Bezos, and wouldn’t make huge choices with out his enter. Lewis, a former Monetary Instances reporter and information editor, grew to become the Put up’s writer in November 2023.
This summer season, Lewis angered Washington Put up journalists after changing the manager editor and different workers together with his former colleagues from The Wall Avenue Journal and The Telegraph. He confronted investigations from rival newspapers — in addition to his personal publication — into his position in a cellphone hacking scandal within the UK whereas he was a senior government at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.
The turmoil on the Put up got here as Murdoch’s New York Put up endorsed Trump for president, with a front-page headline declaring that the “alternative was clear”.
The tabloid’s endorsement got here per week after Trump went on Fox & Associates and referred to as on Murdoch to cease Fox Information from airing “unfavorable commercials” that may harm his re-election marketing campaign.
“I’m going to inform him one thing quite simple,” Trump stated. “Don’t placed on unfavorable commercials for 21 days.”
Murdoch has additionally had a tumultuous relationship with Trump. In texts revealed throughout a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Methods towards Fox Information, Murdoch stated Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen was “an enormous disservice to the nation . . . Greatest we don’t point out his identify until important and positively don’t help him”. Murdoch settled the go well with.
The Put up’s reversal on endorsements follows a choice by Patrick Quickly-Shiong, proprietor of the Los Angeles Instances, to dam an endorsement of Harris. Mariel Garza, the editorials editor, resigned in protest.
The Related Press reported that hours after the Put up introduced its endorsement determination, Trump greeted executives from Blue Origin, the area firm owned by Bezos that has a $3.4bn contract with Nasa to construct a spacecraft to hold astronauts to the moon and again.
