Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos defended the newspaper’s choice not to support a 2024 presidential candidate a few weeks before the election, arguing that it would not have made a difference anyway.
Liberal staffers publicly condemned the decision not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after a draft had reportedly already been written. There were layoffs of Post staffers and editorial board members, a mass exodus of subscribers, and Bezos even had to “principled decision” in a rare op-ed.
Bezos was asked about the decision on Wednesday when interviewed by New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin DealBook Summit 2024.
After recalling The Post’s history and noting that the organization historically only supported candidates after Watergate, he explained, “We just decided that, you know, it wouldn’t help … it wouldn’t affect the election.” election anyway.”
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos defended his choice not to endorse a candidate shortly before the 2024 elections. (The New York Times DealBook Summit 2024 live/posted by Andrew Sorkin)
“There is no evidence that newspaper articles influence the election,” Bezos said. “No independent voter in Pennsylvania at the time would say, ‘Oh! Is that what the Washington Post thinks? Well, I will.’ So that wasn’t going to happen.”
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“We just decided that the positives of (an endorsement) were very small and that it reinforced the perception of bias,” he continued. “At the same time, we are grappling with the problem that all traditional media is grappling with, which is a very difficult and significant loss of trust.”
He said that not only should the media be accurate, but people should believe it is accurate.
Sorkin read particularly scathing rebukes of the non-approval from former Post editor-in-chief Marty Baron and journalist David Remnick, but Bezos stuck to his guns.
Andrew Ross Sorkin and Jeff Bezos speak on stage during The New York Times Dealbook Summit 2024 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on December 4, 2024 in New York City. ((Photo by Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for The New York Times))
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“We made this decision, it was the right decision. I am proud of the decision we made, and it was far from cowardly because we knew there would be a backlash, and we did the right thing anyway” , he said.
Sorkin went on to bring up the backlash, such as 250,000 people canceling their subscriptions, asking whether Bezos’ attempt to restore trust in the media had backfired and instead made them more had guarded against.
“No, I don’t follow that logic,” Bezos said, later adding that he wasn’t surprised by the response. “You can’t do the wrong thing because you’re worried about bad PR or whatever you want to call it. This was the right decision. We made the right decision. I’m very proud of that decision.
When Bezos expressed optimism about Trump’s next presidency, Sorkin pressed him about the president-elect’s controversial relationship with the media, calling them the “enemy.”
‘I’m going to try to talk him out of that idea. I don’t think the press is the enemy. And I don’t think he either… You’ve probably grown in the last two years. He did that too, you know, this is not the case.
He later added, “Let’s go convince him of this. You and I have to go. Let’s go talk to him.’
Fox News’ Brian Flood contributed to this report.
