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Jeff Bezos says endorsing the president “creates a perception of bias” as he defends The Washington Post

Topline

Billionaire Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the newspaper's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate, a move that has sparked intense backlash and staff layoffs. According to reports, 200,000 people have canceled their digital subscription

Important facts

In an editorial for the newspaper, Bezos wrote that presidential endorsements “do nothing to tip the scales in an election” and wrote: “No undecided voter in Pennsylvania will say, 'I agree with Newspaper A's endorsement.' “

The billionaire then argued that the president's endorsements “create a perception of bias… of non-independence” and that the decision to end them was a “principled decision.”

Bezos wrote that he wished “we had made the change sooner, at a moment further removed from the election and the emotions surrounding it,” but called the problem “insufficient planning” rather than “any intentional strategy.”

The owner of The Washington Post said there was no quid pro quo and that neither the candidates nor their campaigns were previously consulted or informed of the decision.

Citing polls that showed declining public trust in the news media, Bezos called the decision an attempt to restore trust and avoid it being eroded by “off-the-fancy podcasts, inaccurate social media posts and other unconfirmed ones.” News Sources” will be replaced.

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Crucial quote

“Most people believe the media is biased. Those who don't recognize this pay little attention to reality, and those who fight against reality lose… Simply refusing to support presidential candidates is not enough to move us very high on the trust scale, but it is a significant step up right direction,” Bezos wrote.

tangent

While the billionaire noted there was no “quid pro quo” in the decision, he spoke on the same day as the Washington Post's announcement of former President Donald Trump's meeting with Dave Limp, the CEO of his rocket company Blue Origin. “I sighed when I found out because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would want to portray this as anything other than a principled decision,” Bezos wrote. He said he knew nothing about the meeting beforehand, adding that even Limp didn't know about the Washington Post's decision. “There is no connection between that and our decision to support the president, and any assertion otherwise is false.”

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