WASHINGTON, D.C. Oct. 29 (DPI) – Jeff Bezos forced his executives at The Washington Post to not publish a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris this week, a move intended to assert editorial independence at a time when journalism, Bezos wrote, is the least trusted of all professions.

But the move – coming only 8 days before the Nov. 5 election – upset most of The Post’s staff as well as throngs of readers. Two editorial-page staffers resigned, and most of the 16,000 reader comments attached to Bezos’s personal comment on the matter excoriated him.

In fact, Bezos’s decision is hardly unprecedented in the world of news publishing: Newspapers frequently choose not to endorse candidates, and for myriad reasons. The Post itself, for many years in the 20th century, elected not to endorse candidates as a matter of policy.

Still, the poor timing of Bezos’s decision generated as much ire as the decision itself. Robert Kagan, a respected foreign policy expert who disassociated himself from The Post after the move, told CNN that Bezos was seeking to curry favor with Trump in the event Trump won the election.

The most popular reader comments, in order, reflected the deep hostility toward Bezos and his clumsy attempt to keep the paper “neutral” this election season.

Many of us trusted the Washington Post because we believed it operated independent of your personal editorial interference. Stop lecturing us for a problem you created.

Jeff Bezos actually made the right decision — but at the wrong time. He should have made this decision 3 years ago — long before it was known who the candidates would be. A newspaper endorsement for a presidential candidates — even by the NY Times or the Washington Post — have zero impact on how people vote. But it can color how people think of the objectivity of the newpaper in its reporting. I would much rather the Post be seen by more people as credible in its reporting on the idiocy and threat of Donald Trump, for example, than read an endorsement of his opponent that will change no one’s mind on how they vote.

Or you could say “I’m sorry. The timing of this was unacceptable and a mistake.” But sure, keep doubling down. That should work.

Jeff Bozos claims with a straight: “The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media.” …while being completely oblivious to the role of oligarch’s like him in Americans’ loss of trust in the news media — a trust that was at its all-time when Katharine Graham‘s Washington Post under Ben Bradlee protected our democracy by toppling an American president who, like Trump, thought himself to be above the law.
Dear Jeff Bozos: I trusted the Post before your non-endorsement decision. Therefore, your claim that “Americans don’t trust the news media”is not “hard truth”, it’s nonsense.