The Washington Post planned to endorse Kamala Harris over Donald Trump before owner Jeff Bezos, the Amazon founder, decided again it, the newspaper reported.
If you wanna read something great, just this one time, read the comments on this story. Every one is livid. 10k so far and coming in too fast to keep up with.
Retired Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron slammed the decision on social media.
βThis is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,β Baron wrote. β@RealDonaldTrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @JeffBezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.β
Added my pebble to the avalanche here and as I did so it was fun to watch the N in the live "view N new comments" counter ticking up so fast that the counter was jumping by 10s and 20s instead of individual numbers, with like 80% of them being immediate cancellations and 100% of them being completely furious and disgusted
And this is why we don't want, need or should tolerate corporate media, especially when majority owned by single billionaires. Anytime a billionaire buys a media company, the FEC and FCC should step in and shut it down.
I appreciate your efforts on this subject. My point is merely that the media landscape has changed, and now the big media companies are more concentrated in the hands of national elites than ever. And we shouldn't allow that.
Oh, I totally agree. I've just been thinking a lot about how, if the big papers were always run by rich old white guys, what's different now? I think the answer is that they're obscenely richer, and journalism as an industry is much weaker.
Like so many cultural offshoots of free enterprise, things that were tolerable vexations on a small scale become monstrous injustices once the raw power of capitalism is unfettered.
@aka_quant_noir Actually not true. Many newspapers were started in small towns as a way to share community information, from new items at the mercantile to school sports scores to crimes and fires, to local obituaries. They left the front page for general county, state or national news - the coming of the railroad, an upcoming auction, a town hall meeting. Many were written & printed as public service.
Big corporate media supported fascism then, it is doing it now. There is war in europe and same message is in the mediaβitβll be too costly to defend democracy, give up, isolate and let the baddies have their way, keep yourself safeβ. I donβt think itβs a coincidence.
The WaPo ownerβs cowardice aside, I wonder, does Bezos imagine trump & co will forgive & forget how much they hated the WaPo for its trump-Russia coverage during trumpβs (hopefully only) term? Bezos gonna hafta do alot more than just not endorse Harris to get in trumpβs good graces. #media #wapo
Derek Powazek π
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •reshared this
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Derek Powazek π
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris, paper reports
Dan Mangan (CNBC)Derek Powazek π
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •If you wanna read something great, just this one time, read the comments on this story. Every one is livid. 10k so far and coming in too fast to keep up with.
washingtonpost.com/style/mediaβ¦
misomunje
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Retired Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron slammed the decision on social media.
βThis is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,β Baron wrote. β@RealDonaldTrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @JeffBezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.β
huffpost.com/entry/washington-β¦
Washington Post Declines To Make Presidential Endorsement For First Time In Decades
Sara Boboltz (HuffPost)Derek Powazek π
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in reply to Extinction Studies • • •Extinction Studies
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Derek Powazek π
in reply to Extinction Studies • • •βοΈΞΟakakiΟπ
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •@aka_quant_noir
Like so many cultural offshoots of free enterprise, things that were tolerable vexations on a small scale become monstrous injustices once the raw power of capitalism is unfettered.
lolonurse
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Actually not true. Many newspapers were started in small towns as a way to share community information, from new items at the mercantile to school sports scores to crimes and fires, to local obituaries. They left the front page for general county, state or national news - the coming of the railroad, an upcoming auction, a town hall meeting. Many were written & printed as public service.
Derek Powazek π
in reply to lolonurse • • •@lolonurse @aka_quant_noir sorry, I meant the big newspapers
(I have worked in journalism since the 90s, including running small newspapers. So I know.)
lolonurse
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Ah... that's a horse of a different color, and I agree!
kaffando
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •#WaPo
Derek Powazek π
in reply to kaffando • • •kaffando
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Just reading them. Wow.
I also hadn't realised the Democracy Dies in Darkness line is part of the masthead. Someone will be getting sacked for that, but good on them.
Derek Powazek π
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in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Derek Powazek π
in reply to MiniMia π΄σ §σ ’σ ·σ ¬σ ³σ Ώ π΅πΈ • • •wendy boucek for Kamala
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Different Drummer
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in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •jwz reshared this.
Gatekeeper..
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in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Democracy DOA
or
Democracy 1964-2024
BronMason Voted For Kamala
in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •Bezos gonna hafta do alot more than just not endorse Harris to get in trumpβs good graces.
#media #wapo
Keith D Johnson
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in reply to Derek Powazek π • • •You need one with
"Arbeit macht frei"