Jeff Bezos: Washington Post presidential endorsements ended on principle not deal with Trump

Amazon founder and newspaper owner says ‘no quid pro quo of any kind’ played into the decision not to endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump

Jeff Bezos has denied making a deal with Donald Trump after he ruled the Washington Post would not endorse a presidential candidate, insisting he made the decision out of principle.
Writing what is understood to be his first ever op-ed for the paper since taking over as owner in 2016, Mr Bezos, 60, defended his decision which has reportedly led to over 200,000 readers cancelling their subscriptions.
The move has drawn criticism from current and former staff, with Robert Kagan, the Post’s editor-at-large, resigning last week as a result. 
Mr Bezos said that “no quid pro quo of any kind” had played into his decision and said that “neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way”.
Instead, he said the “principled” decision was made to avoid the perception of bias, and claimed that newspaper endorsements don’t make a difference to voters.
It is the first time in 46 years the newspaper has not endorsed a presidential candidate.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None,” he said. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”
However, casting himself as a member of the press, the tech billionaire argued that the media is increasingly perceived as biased and criticised those who have adopted a “victim mentality”, in an apparent swipe at his own editorial staff.
“We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose,” he said.
“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. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.”
Mr Bezos’ comments came after it emerged over the weekend that executives from his aerospace company, Blue Origin, met with Trump on the same day as he prevented the Post from running a presidential endorsement. The company has a Nasa contract worth $3.4 billion to build a lunar lander.
Addressing the apparent conflict of interest, Mr Bezos admitted “I am not an ideal owner of The Post”, but denied the two events were related.
“Dave Limp, the chief executive of one of my companies, Blue Origin, met with former president Donald Trump on the day of our announcement. I sighed when I found out, because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision,” he said.
“But the fact is, I didn’t know about the meeting beforehand. Even Limp didn’t know about it in advance; the meeting was scheduled quickly that morning. There is no connection between it and our decision on presidential endorsements, and any suggestion otherwise is false.”
Mr Bezos also took aim at newspaper outlets, including his own and the New York Times, accusing them of elitism.
“The Washington Post and the New York Times win prizes, but increasingly we talk only to a certain elite. More and more, we talk to ourselves,” he said. “While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance — overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs — not without a fight. It’s too important.”
The Post has backed Democratic presidential candidates since 1976, except for in 1988 when it opted to not make a recommendation in the contest between George HW Bush and Michael Dukakis.
It supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden in 2016 and 2020, respectively, when Donald Trump was the Republican candidate. The Post’s support for the Democratic candidates was denounced by the Republicans and Trump, as president, railed against both the Post and Mr Bezos.
Sir William Lewis, the Post’s chief executive, announced last week that the Post would not be endorsing any candidates in any future elections.
“We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” he said.
“We recognise 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.”
The Washington Post Guild, the union that represents the newspaper’s staff, said it was “deeply concerned” by the move.
“The message from our chief executive, Will Lewis — not from the Editorial Board itself — makes us concerned that management interfered with the work of our members in Editorial,” it wrote in a statement.
“This decision undercuts the work of our members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it.”
Senior journalists at the paper have also scorned the decision not to endorse a candidate, with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the former Post journalists who exposed the Watergate scandal, labelling it “surprising and disappointing”.