For the first time in 36 years, the Post hasn’t endorsed a candidate in a presidential election.
Bezos, the media outlet’s owner, has opted to remain neutral, a decision that has caused internal “crisis” and led to the cancellation of 200,000 subscriptions.
Openly supporting a political party as a successful businessman is always risky, even for some of world's the richest people. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is all in on former President Donald Trump, while Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has decided to support Vice President Kamala Harris in race for president.
However, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, through his media outlet, The Washington Post, has chosen to stay neutral by declining to endorse any candidate. According to the Financial Times, this stance has led to a significant internal crisis.
Neutrality is often controversial in the U.S. Musk has contributed millions of dollars to Trump’s campaign in recent weeks and attended rallies to show his support for the Republican candidate. According to Forbes, 82 billionaires have publicly supported Harris, including Gates, who has typically remained discreet about his political preferences.
In a decision unprecedented in the past 36 years, Bezos ordered editors of the Post, which he purchased for $190 million in 2013, not to publish an editorial endorsing any candidate in the presidential race.
The decision set off a firestorm. Bezos’ decision not to endorse any candidate has sparked controversy among readers and editorial board members.
According to NPR, more than 200,000 digital subscriptions had been cancelled as of midday Monday. Since some cancellations don’t take effect immediately, that number could be higher by the end of October. This figure represents approximately 8% of the media outlet’s 2.5 million subscribers.
Additionally, 17 columnists signed a manifesto protesting the decision, calling it “an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper.” Columnists Molly Roberts, David Hoffman, and Mili Mitra resigned from the editorial board, while Robert Kagan, editor-at-large and an acclaimed columnist, also quit in protest.
Bezos’ reasons. Bezos attempted to ease tensions by publishing the reasons behind his decision. In his essay, he emphasized that he acted to maintain the impartiality of a media outlet with low credibility, adding that it shouldn’t be judge and jury in the electoral process. “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias,” Bezos stated.
Additionally, the Amazon founder acknowledged that Blue Origin CEO William Lewis and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy had recently met with Trump, as reported by CNN. These meetings, which preceded the decision not to publish an editorial supporting Harris, have raised suspicions of potential pressure from Trump, according to CNBC.
The first decision of its kind since 1988. In a statement from the Post’s publisher and CEO, the media outlet acknowledges the decision is unprecedented, but notes it’s not the first time it has adopted a position of neutrality.
Marty Baron, the former executive editor of the Post, told NPR that while the stated reasons are respectable, the timing was inappropriate. “If this decision had been made three years ago, two years ago, maybe even a year ago, that would’ve been fine. It’s a certainly reasonable decision. But this was made within a couple of weeks of the election, and there was no substantive serious deliberation with the editorial board of the paper. It was clearly made for other reasons, not for reasons of high principle,” he said.
Image | Daniel Oberhaus
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