Two weeks before the presidential election, two of the nation’s largest newspapers dropped their policies of endorsing presidential candidates.
The owners of The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post are multi-billionaires who have no background in journalism and, until now, have left the operations of their papers to those who do.
Even so, in the 11 years since Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, bought The Washington Post, he has strongly supported the paper’s practice of endorsing presidential candidates despite then-President Donald Trump’s efforts to sabotage Bezos’s various enterprises, including intervening in a $10 billion cloud-computing contract with the Defense Department, and threats to raise postal rates so that they would hurt Amazon.
At the time, such bullying seemed to stiffen Bezos’s spine all the more.
But with the race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Trump neck-and-neck, one wonders if even billionaires have their price. It would spell doom for truth-telling.
If a news organization feels pressured to hide the truth or look the other way, democracy suffers. The Post’s masthead proudly declares, “Democracy dies in darkness.” In these papers’ case, the same can be said in broad daylight.
BOTH Bezos and L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, a wealthy doctor and biotech entrepreneur, said their decision to not endorse presidential candidates was to allow voters to make their own decisions.
But because the timing of their decisions is just days away from the election, it’s hard not to surmise their decisions were made out of fear Trump will return to power.
The former President has made it clear he regards free-standing media as the “enemy of the people.”
IN THE case of mid-size newspapers, many have eliminated their editorial pages altogether in an effort to avoid alienating subscribers and advertising customers.
I can sympathize. Each and every one is valued. Cherished.
But I don’t agree with Bezos and others who favor neutrality, especially in these politically fraught times.
And I love when community members put themselves out there by writing letters to the editor.
I frequently hear complaints that the Register is “liberal,” conflating its opinion page with that of the entire product. Other than where it’s specifically designated, opinions are forbidden in straight news stories. We call this the “ethical wall,” a virtual separation between a paper’s editorial section from that of its news or advertising departments.
DO opinion pieces influence voters’ decisions?
