Jeff Bezos Made Someone Else’s Business Decision
Final Friday, Washington Publish writer and CEO Will Lewis announced in an editorial printed on the paper’s web site that the Publish‘s editorial board wouldn’t be endorsing a candidate within the 2024 presidential election, because it has historically executed.
The backlash to this determination arrived swiftly and from all instructions, thanks largely to reporting from NPR’s David Folkenflik, who revealed that the editorial board had in actual fact drafted an endorsement of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris earlier this month. In accordance with Folkenflik’s reporting, the paper’s billionaire proprietor, Jeff Bezos, reviewed a draft of the endorsement earlier than Lewis introduced that the Publish wouldn’t be endorsing a candidate this yr. Some Publish staffers, confronted with their publication’s proprietor meddling in editorial selections, revolted. Just a few published articles criticizing administration’s determination to nix the endorsement, whereas others submitted letters of resignation. A a lot greater and extra damaging response got here from outdoors the paper: In accordance with Folkenflik, at the very least 200,000 people have cancelled their digital subscriptions to the Publish because the publication of Lewis’s editorial, a quantity that represents roughly eight % of the paper’s paid circulation.
The writers and editors who resigned from the paper, and the readers who cancelled their subscriptions, all appear to have come to the identical conclusion: Bezos, in an effort to make life simpler for himself and his many enterprise pursuits within the occasion that Donald Trump as soon as once more claims the presidency, had stained the Publish‘s popularity by breaching the firewall between the paper’s enterprise and editorial departments. It is simple sufficient to know how Bezos might need made such a choice. A nationwide paper endorsing Harris for president does little or no to maneuver the needle, and it follows that Bezos would see a sound enterprise determination within the speculative upside and apparently restricted draw back of ending such a rote and anticipated follow.
What Bezos failed to think about is that whereas an endorsement might not carry a lot weight among the many Publish‘s readership, its sudden and pointed absence very a lot does. A presidential endorsement could also be among the many least significant methods for a paper just like the Publish to broadcast its values and editorial imaginative and prescient, nevertheless it is among the most instantly legible. Even when all an endorsement of Harris may accomplish is to reassure Publish subscribers that they’re paying for a broadly liberal publication, that information is (now self-evidently) fairly necessary to the 200,000 readers who cancelled their subscriptions over the previous few days.
On Monday, Bezos tried to cease the monetary bleeding by explaining himself in an editorial, headlined “The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media.” In his piece, Bezos tried to cease one dialog—about his craven meddling for the sake of currying favor with a fascist who would possibly develop into president—by beginning one other one concerning the broader well being of the media trade. After citing some ballot numbers indicating that Individuals don’t belief the media, Bezos supplied his clarification: He killed the Washington Publish‘s custom of endorsing a presidential candidate to not shield his personal private pursuits, however to assist restore the nation’s religion in journalism.
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. What presidential endorsements really do is create a notion of bias. A notion of non-independence. Ending them is a principled determination, and it’s the precise one. Eugene Meyer, writer of The Washington Publish from 1933 to 1946, thought the identical, and he was proper. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates isn’t sufficient to maneuver us very far up the belief scale, nevertheless it’s a significant step in the precise route. I want we had made the change sooner than we did, in a second farther from the election and the feelings round it. That was insufficient planning, and never some intentional technique.
Setting apart the concept that the common belief of the general public is one thing {that a} information organizations must be striving to realize (any newspaper value a rattling in 2024 goes to realize the belief of some readers whereas alienating others by its work), or that it’s in any respect helpful to gauge the general public’s belief ranges in one thing as ill-defined as “the media” (if outlets like Fox Information and Newsmax are included in that tent, then why should not belief ranges be low?), Bezos appears to badly misunderstand his personal premise. He admits in his personal editorial that declining to endorse a candidate isn’t one thing that may, by itself, meaningfully improve anybody’s religion within the Washington Publish—however why would not this selection harm that religion?
“Perception” is the important thing phrase in Bezos’s apologia. An endorsement, made and defined by skilled journalists who’ve spent years digging into politics and coverage points, is actually a conclusion—no totally different than when a reporter assembles all of the details of a public well being story, lays them out for readers alongside photographic proof of sinister poison gurgling out of a drainpipe, and concludes that Multinational Firm X is dumping carcinogenic waste right into a river. That is just about the important worth proposition, to society, of getting skilled journalists: not that they will assemble featureless lists of disaggregated details for layperson readers to grapple with, however that by digging relentlessly right into a given topic and speaking to consultants, they will attain and clarify authoritative conclusions. This firm is ripping off its workforce. This wealthy shit-for-brains dilettante who seems to be like Irradiated Mr. Burns is destroying the newspaper he purchased. This presidential candidate’s coverage concepts and basic comportment align higher with the normie politics and values anybody with a mind can determine as these broadly defining each our readership and our journalism.
There is no purpose why that work, executed responsibly and transparently by reporters, writers, and editors, should create any specific “perception of bias” amongst good-faith readers, who, even when upset by the paper’s selection of candidate, may see for themselves the chain of reasoning that led it there. If something, you would count on that it would considerably improve their belief of the publication, for stating in print the situation to which all its reporting and evaluation has introduced it.
Evaluate that with a latest determination that completely will, and already has, broken the general public’s notion of the paper. That will be its billionaire proprietor descending from his darkish tower to haphazardly snuff out a narrative because it was being ready for publication—particularly for concern of revealing to readers a place the paper’s editorial board holds and was able to articulate within the open. This fact should be crushed and withheld by the paper’s proprietor, you see, lest anybody understand that the Publish lacks independence. If he actually needs to extend belief in his newspaper, he can begin by staying out of his editors’ e-mail inboxes.
What’s miserable about all of that is that Bezos and the individuals who have tried to punish him by unsubscribing from the Publish are affected by variations of the identical misunderstanding. A newspaper isn’t outlined by its endorsements, nor the whims of its blinkered proprietor. It’s outlined by the journalists who dedicate their time to explaining the world to their readers. These journalists can break tales and win awards and inform the general public to the fullest of their talents, however they may by no means escape the bind that capitalism places all of us in, which is that penalties solely ever movement in a single route.
One wealthy bozo could make a hasty, ill-informed determination that places his newspaper’s popularity by the shredder, and the one recourse out there to an offended reader is a cancelled subscription. There’s a righteous feeling to be present in doling out punishment by snapping your pockets shut—and in rushing to open it for someone else—however not everyone seems to be uncovered to the results of the market. Cash is meaningless to Bezos, and so the one approach for a narrative about his personal buffoonery to finish is with another person paying for his sins. On this case, the Washington Publish‘s rank-and-file journalists should take care of the results of 200,000 vaporized subscriptions. Whether or not budgets are tightened and jobs are misplaced will rely on Bezos’s subsequent whim. Ultimately, a billionaire can solely ever personal playthings.