An ironic slogan
As we get closer to the election, the frenzy of the media becomes increasingly apparent. All the stories about polls, about uncommitted voters, about wild rumors about immigrants, etc., it all has a purpose — to make us increasingly anxious and desperate for more “news”, that is, the stuff the media tells us will help us resolve our uncertainty. Except, of course, it isn’t what we need. I know how I’m going to vote, I informed my opinion on that by seeing what the candidates do and say, and all the caterwauling about how my neighbors will vote or how people a thousand miles away will vote doesn’t matter.
But that is what the media feeds on.
The machine is churning so fast right now that the works have been exposed. Sprockets have sprung, circuits are frayed, the housing is cracked, and the real engines of the news are exposed. It’s billionaires meddling.
The choice in the next election is obvious to every informed citizen, but the Washington Post went full chickenshit and decided this was the year they can’t make an endorsement. The publisher, William Lewis, had to twist himself into knots to justify that act of cowardice.
“We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable,” Lewis wrote. “We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects.”
In the name of ethics, the rule of law, and respect for human freedom, the paper nobly refuses to support the candidate who opposes a fascist with no ethics, contempt for the law, who wants to lock up and deport millions of Americans. That is such a chickenshit excuse. You know the real motivation: they are afraid Trump might win, and they are preemptively kneeling before the monster who’d abuse his power to silence media that is critical of him.
And, of course, the Washington Post is owned by a billionaire, Jeff Bezos, who is probably pissed off at the only reasonable (if flawed) candidate who is talking about mild policy that might cost him another yacht. The thumb is on the scales.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, another major newspaper, the LA Times, refused to endorse a candidate who opposes Trump, and has lost the support of much of its staff.
Mariel Garza, who was until days ago the Los Angeles Times’ editorials editor, said she resigned from her post in protest after the paper’s owner, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked an endorsement the editorial board had planned to make for Harris. Soon-Shiong appeared to push back in a social media post, in which he claimed the editorial board was asked to “draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate” so readers could make an informed decision, but claimed the board did not follow through. Editorial board members Robert Greene, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and Karin Klein also resigned in protest, with both citing their disappointment over the blocked endorsement.
Patrick Soon-Shiong is a South African billionaire who bought his way into a position of influence. I can think of another South African billionaire who is poisoning our democracy. Maybe we should deport them all?
There are things we can do — weak, belated things, but it’s something. You can write a letter to the editor of the WaPo. It probably won’t get published, but increasing the tally of people who state their contempt for the editorial cowardice can help. Do like Martin Baron.
Former Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron, who led the newsroom to acclaim during Trump’s presidency, denounced the decision starkly.
“This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty,” Baron said in a statement to NPR. “Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
Or even better, if you are a subscriber, cancel it right now. I did. The darkness approaches. Don’t expect the Washington Post to light a candle.
When I read that in the WaPo yesterday I made this comment there; OH F, I’m afraid of Trump. There is no other rational that makes sense.
I can think of two others, Musk and Peter Thiel.
Carl Sagan called it a few decades ago.
We are passed the point where the demons are beginning to stir.
The demons are awake and in a tight election race that they might well win.
As a Boomer its been quite a ride in the USA. The Great Society, the Vietnam war, LSD, the Grateful Dead, University, Disco, Bill Clinton, Iraq II war, the Great Recession, the Trump disaster, the killer Covid-19 virus pandemic. Etc.
I’ve yet to live in a failing democracy run by an age related cognitively demented fascist. It’s hard to even imagine realistically how bad the christofascists regime will be.
We already had concentration camps during the last Trump regime, those border tent camps put up for the migrants crossing the southern border. The ones where they took people’s children away to torture them.
I’d like to skip this step but it isn’t up to me.
I haven’t subscribed to the WaPo in years. I do occasionally get to read a couple of articles, and I get their emails. I sent a shame letter. Of course, that won’t get near Bezos. I suppose what we really should cancel is our Amazon subscription.
So the oligarchs are afraid their taxes will go up under Harris. Poor dears. They should fear a blood thirsty power-grabber like Trump because if he gets back in power with the power of Congress behind him, he will take out anybody who crosses him…just like his pals Putin, Xi, Orban, and Netanyahu do.
Has The NY Times made an endorsement? My partner says they hate Trump.
There should be no billionaires. Then this problem would disappear.
Reginald Selkirk – I think you missed the point – Elon Musk is South African, Peter Thiel is German.
Nine days to go now. ( https://www.270towin.com/2024-countdown-clock/ )
How can can it be so close?!!!?
WTF is wrong with people?
Worid shaping choice.
I am terrified. i am the world’s biggest ocean away and still…see previous sentence.,
Becoz this matters yet so many don’t seem realise how serious the consequences of this will be.
There’s an interesting tidbit here, maybe not so much an aside:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/25/media/washington-post-wont-endorse-presidential-candidate
Sorry if I get too caught up in contemplating what “scuttle astronauts” might mean. But yes Blue Origin is shit weasel Bezos’ space venture. Remember when he put Denny Crane into space, so to speak?
Here’s the linked AP article:
https://apnews.com/live/2024-election-trump-harris-news-updates#00000192-c592-d7d8-a7be-efbf2ca80000
From X (owned by another shit weasel billionaire):
https://x.com/MerylKornfield/status/1849977796304478327
Is a reason that why the WaPo threw the US under the bus aside from the cowardice of Bezos? I am so glad I don’t have a Prime membership.
I voted Wednesday and am trying to spend as little time paying attention to the election until the votes finally get tallied as I can for my mental health.
@6 Jim Brady
I didn’t “miss the point,” I was just wrong. I vaguely remembered some mention of Thiel as being associated with South Africa. And it is not without foundation.
Wikipedia
StevOr @ #7 — “How can it be so close?!!!?” Perhaps it’s not so close. Consider who’s telling us how close it is. As the OP suggests the media has an interest in making the horse race look close. Plus, statistics: I saw a video recently, perhaps from here, that did a good job of explaining how polls can seem very close. Of course, that might just be might wishful thinking.
I cancelled my WaPo subscription yesterday. After sporadically following that editorial’s comment section since yesterday afternoon, I estimate 95-98% of those who have commented (37,682 as I write) noted they cancelled/are cancelling their subscriptions to WaPo. That ain’t chicken feed. No wait, it IS chicken feed to the cowardly chicken-in-charge.
I cancelled my subscription a long time ago and this is making me even less regretting my decision (if ever).
robro: it’s your wishful thinking. It was close in 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. Why should it be different in 2024?
The bulk of the result is people voting for the color they like better, unrelated to any policies, and it’s been that way for decades.
This is so clearly not what the WaPo’s refusal to endorse is doing that I wonder if William Lewis has chosen — for reasons best known to himself, though several can readily be imagined — to say this as a discreet fuck-you to Jeff Bezos that he hopes the readership will pick up on. If he gets called out on it by Bezos, he can defend himself by claiming the boss is reading too much into just one statement. Lewis may be hoping that it will all be forgotten after a Trump loss, when things can hopefully go back to normal, and that he can delay needing to choose between his integrity and his job by making it dependent on Trump getting back into the White House.
That would still be a chickenshit move, but it’s a possible one.
The only people who suffer if you cancel your paper are the news reporters, and when they lose their jobs, the paper can no longer cover as much news or news that matters. Cancel Amazon? Sure, that works a lot better.
Cancel Amazon, especially cancel Prime.
If you have cancelled your WaPo subscription consider where else you might spend those dollars, there are plenty of far more independent, decent quality news sources of varying sizes around who need citizen money to continue operating.
Fools. They don’t know the kind of person they are dealing with. I do. Trump already has a huge grudge against the WaPo (and every other non-far-right media outlet) that will not go away because of one act of appeasement. This will whet, not sate, Trump’s power-lust to bend the WaPo over and have his way with it before utterly destroying it.
Gestures of appeasement toward fascists are worse than futile. Give them an inch and they will take a mile. And they will sense weakness. And then they will do what comes naturally to predators when they sense weakness in potential prey: move in for the kill.
The publisher, William Lewis, had to twist himself into knots to justify that act of cowardice.
Never for a second should we forget that William Lewis previously worked for Rupert Murdoch (as editor of the Wall Street Journal) and the Murdoch-imitating Telegraph. Such a history should disqualify anyone, for life, from any position having to do with journalism or democracy; he was already pretzeled into a Gordian knot (and Bezos surely knew that, if not in so many words, when he hired him, exactly one year before the upcoming US election).
If you want to make a dent in Jeff Bezos’ empire, canceling your WaPo subscription will make very little difference.
It would be more effective to cancel your Amazon Prime.
I have always done my best to never have anything to do with Amazon. Since its inception, it’s always seemed to me to be a company based on destruction of things I value. From independent bookstores to other small businesses to employee rights. There are times when dealing with them is unavoidable, which is a problem in itself, showing just how pervasive they’ve become. That the company is owned by such a cartoon villain as Bezos is just an added reason to stay away. When Lewis was appointed, I lost any thought that Bezos valued democracy any more than Trump or Musk. Not that I’d ever had much reason to think otherwise, but he did leave them alone enough, editorially, to allow them to do some good work. This is a very clear ending of any trust in that.