According to leaked messages, Amazon employees react to Jeff Bezos' WaPo decision

• Jeff Bezos recently decided to stop The Washington Post's endorsement of the president.
• In leaked messages, Amazon employees are divided, with some supporting his demand.
• Other Amazon employees questioned Bezos' motives and timing.

Jeff Bezos' recent decision to stop The Washington Post's endorsement of the president sparked a backlash that earned the newspaper more than 250,000 subscriptions.

According to dozens of internal Slack messages obtained by Business Insider, the WaPo situation has also become a hot topic among some employees at Amazon, the company Bezos founded and led until 2021.

While several Amazon employees criticized the change, some employees supported Bezos' controversial request.

An aide praised Bezos for his willingness to make his point, but noted that the timing for releasing his statement was not ideal. This person wrote that it was the kind of leadership transparency that Amazon has lacked since Bezos' departure in 2021, citing the company's decision to bring employees back to the office without the employee providing an adequate explanation.

“These are things I expect from a leader,” the employee wrote in one of the Slack messages obtained by BI. “I’m starting to realize that most leaders aren’t like that.”

Another Amazon employee wrote that Bezos should have more right-wing editorials in the Post to reduce the perception of bias.

Bezos faced intense criticism after the Washington Post, the newspaper he has owned since 2013, announced last week that it would no longer endorse presidential candidates. The Washington Post has long supported Democratic candidates, and some saw the move as a way to curry favor with Donald Trump if he wins next month's US election.

Spokespeople for Amazon and The Washington Post did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

“Credibility boost”

Bezos said in an opinion piece on Monday that there was “no quid pro quo of any kind” in his decision and said he opposed presidential endorsements because they “do nothing to tip the balance in an election” and only ” “creating a perception” of bias.”

According to Slack messages obtained by BI, some Amazon employees agreed.

“If a news organization stopped endorsing candidates, I would be more inclined to read it because I would see it as a credibility boost,” one staffer wrote.

Other Amazon employees said it was “silly” and “sad” that so many Washington Post readers were canceling their subscriptions over the advertising thing. They said these readers were only willing to accept news articles that aligned with their political views, thereby preventing them from seeing a larger world.

“This bias creates a distortion of what is actually happening (on both the left and the right) and is, in my opinion, bad for the country,” wrote one of the Amazon employees.

“Suspicious and worrying”

Still, some Amazon employees who commented on the company's Slack were suspicious of Bezos' true motives.

These workers said the timing of the decision, just weeks before the election, was concerning. One employee called it “suspicious and concerning.”

Trump is leading in some polls and has played favorites as president in the past, giving Bezos a “clear justification” to avoid any kind of support, one of the employees wrote.

“If they continue to not support people over the years, then perhaps I will accept this as a tipping point for a new policy,” another Amazon employee wrote. “As it is now, I don’t buy this editorial.”

Other Amazon employees were more blunt, saying they were canceling their own subscriptions to The Washington Post. One staffer wrote that it would be “unthinkable” for the Post not to endorse a presidential candidate because “endorsements are a primary function of print journalism.”

“Disappointing, see you WaPo – no longer a top 3 resource for me if your instruction is to represent the interests of your owners,” another Amazon employee wrote.

'Not suitable for a company.

Some employees had a more scathing opinion, pointing to the fact that Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp met with Trump on the same day the WaPo decision was made. Bezos owns Blue Origin, a space company that works closely with the government. Bezos said in his editorial that the meeting was spontaneous and had no connection to the endorsement.

Other employees offered some possible solutions for Bezos. One person suggested the Post write two separate opinion pieces endorsing each candidate and letting readers decide.

Some employees compared Bezos' comments to recent comments from Amazon Cloud CEO Matt Garman, who drew backlash after he said nine out of 10 employees he spoke to were excited about the company's move to full-time return to the office.

An employee criticized Bezos and Garman, saying the executives presented opinions as facts.

“Presenting your opinion as fact is not accurate,” this person wrote. “This is not the right thing for a company and is not in line with the principle of 'great responsibility' that we are supposed to follow.”

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