I won’t often write here about non-photography related subjects, but what is happening around the country with multiple newspaper owners nixing presidential candidate endorsements is worth a few words. I’m a journalist at heart, even if my most frequent tool for that work is a camera. And what Bezos said in his half-hearted and too-late ‘explanation’ addresses journalism directly.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/28/media/jeff-bezos-defends-washington-post-endorsement/index.html
First, if you’re going to argue that newspaper endorsements won’t influence voters, fine. That’s certainly a topic worthy of debate. Bezos might even be right about that.
““Most people believe the media is biased... It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help... We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.””
Second, if he’s going to argue that nixing endorsements is justified because “most people believe the media is biased,” his decision to pull an already-written endorsement after early voting had already started across most of the country is not helping the view of media as being biased. In fact, his decision does the opposite of what he said he intends, and increases skepticism.
Changing a long-standing tradition is a big decision. The Washington Post and the others who have done it in the middle of an election have fumbled the ball. There’s a time for the debate over political endorsements. Right now isn’t the time.