About the WaPo: Democracy is dying in darkness

The MSM is all hairs on fire over Jeff Bezos cancelling the WaPo editors endorsement of Harris. One source comments:

Editor resigns, subscribers cancel as Washington Post 

non-endorsement prompts crisis at Bezos paper

The Post, following the Los Angeles Times (as first reported by Semafor), will no longer endorse candidates. Post editor Will Lewis wrote that “we know” some readers will take the decision as “an abdication of responsibility,” and many of his employees appear to have done so.

The first prominent journalist, editor-at-large Robert Kagan, resigned Friday in response to the decision, Semafor first reported. But there may be more: “people are shocked, furious, surprised,” said an editorial board member, citing internal discussions around resignation. “If you don’t have the balls to own a newspaper, don’t.”

Members of the Post’s editorial board were taken aback on Friday when they learned about the decision from top opinion editor David Shipley. The board had drafted an endorsement of Harris earlier this month, which was sent to the paper’s owner Jeff Bezos. On Friday, NPR reported that opinion staff learned the news from at a tense meeting shortly before Lewis’ announcement.

CNBC: Jeff Bezos killed Washington Post endorsement of Kamala Harris, paper reports

TNR: Jeff Bezos Proves He’s a Coward With Washington Post Endorsement News | The “Democracy Dies in Darkness” paper just made a pathetic decision that can only be explained by Jeff Bezos bowing to Donald Trump.

CJR: The Washington Post opinion editor approved a Harris endorsement. A week later, Jeff Bezos killed it.

Salon: “This is cowardice”: Ex-editor blasts Washington Post after Jeff Bezos blocks Harris endorsement

The comments, including all three of mine, to the announcement were mostly scathing. The announcement included this:

Opinion | On political endorsement

A note from the publisher:

William Lewis is publisher and chief executive officer of The Washington Post.

The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.

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. 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. We also see it as a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions — whom to vote for as the next president.

I find that unpersuasive, cowardly, complicit and insulting. What the hell is an opinion page for if not providing opinions? Cowardice and complicity are the two most common responses by WaPo readers and others outside the paper. I scanned dozens of reader responses and by golly most people there are really pissed.

William Lewis has connections to the radical right authoritarian Rupert Murdoch and his brand of morally rotted "journalism." Lewis was described as a "former Murdoch tabloid impresario" and  publisher of "the Murdoch prestige property The Wall Street Journal." No wonder Lewis is doing his best to protect his boss's ass and his like minded authoritarian friend Trump. Lewis is a radical right authoritarian.

I recall I cancelled my Wall Street journal subscription years ago after Murdoch bought it and turned the editorial page into a nasty fountain of radical right authoritarian screeds, slanders and crackpottery. Bezos got a lot of criticism for hiring Lewis at the WaPo. Well, now it is clear that the criticisms were warranted. I guess one should have seen this coming. Bezos is attacking democracy because he also is a radical right authoritarian.

Also, I bet there is more than a little fear of Trump in Bezos. He knows how much Trump could cost him if Trump decides Bezos is one of those vermin who needs to be exterminated.