Throughout our history, America’s seen super rich men take control of newspapers, purportedly to inform the public, but end up using them to pursue their own selfish, conservative political agendas. Think Colonel Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, William Randolph Hearst of Hearst Communications and Rupert Murdoch of Fox News.
Now add two more: Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, and Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post. Back to back this week, the billionaires announced they were banning their newspapers from making any endorsement in the 2024 presidential election.
Soon-Shiong and Bezos defended their decisions by saying they just wanted to return to the papers’ original policy of no presidential endorsements. Which is so pathetic an excuse few believe it.
Three factors make this cowardly retreat stink to high heaven. First, the built-in contradiction. The fact is both papers previously have made endorsements across the board, including for president — and, indeed, have already made multiple endorsements this year for other local, state and federal candidates. Why endorse for lesser offices while sitting out the most important of all? It makes no sense.
Second, its timing. For the last eight years, during his presidency and this election cycle, both the Times and the Post have been leading critics of Donald Trump. And, at both papers, draft editorials in support of Kamala Harris had already been circulated for approval. If they were not going to endorse for president, they should have announced it six months ago. But doing so only 11 days before Election Day, is, in effect, not a non-endorsement, but an endorsement of Donald Trump — who’s already embracing it as such.
Third, denying reality. Again, both papers have condemned Donald Trump for engineering the Jan. 6 riot. The Post was even awarded a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Jan. 6. Yet now both papers pretend to have no official opinion on whether or not the man behind the assault on the Capitol, and who promises to pardon those convicted of invading the Capitol, should be reelected president. Really? That’s simply not credible. It’s like, after breaking the news on Watergate and forcing Richard Nixon out of the White House, the Post had said it doesn’t care whether Nixon was allowed back in the Oval Office.
No matter how Soon-Shiong and Bezos try to spin it, their refusal to endorse for president in 2024 is the greatest display of cowardice in the history of American journalism. And also one of the worst displays of blatant conflict of interest.
Both billionaires have major ties to the federal government. Soon-Shiong is a health care and biotech entrepreneur whose companies rely on the federal government for approval for new drugs, vaccines, therapies and funding for research. In addition to the Post, Bezos owns Amazon and the Blue Origin space exploration company, which has a $3.4 billion contract with the federal government. It’s hardly a coincidence that leaders of Blue Origin met with a grateful Trump just hours after the Post announced it was not going to endorse.
Bezos and Soon-Shiong overrode their editorial boards and cowed to Trump seemingly out of pure fear: fear of what Donald Trump might do to them if he wins. But here’s the kicker. Donald Trump still hates the media. He still considers them the “enemy of the people.” He’ll still trying to shut down independent media, whether they endorse him or not.
It makes the decisions of the Post and L.A. Times not only an example of appalling cowardice, but also of monumental stupidity.
Press is host of “The Bill Press Pod.” He is the author of “From the Left: A Life in the Crossfire.”
