Four days ago, I posted about the Washington Post not endorsing a candidate for U.S. President. I had a firm idea on why they decided to do that. But as near as I can tell, 100% of Kamala Harris supporters had another opinion.
Last night Jeff Bezos clarified the reason:
In the annual public surveys about trust and reputation, journalists and the media have regularly fallen near the very bottom, often just above Congress. But in this year’s Gallup poll, we have managed to fall below Congress. Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.
Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.
Likewise with newspapers. 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. Reality is an undefeated champion.
I found his opinion peace straightforward, candid, and believable. His reference to reality echos my frequent references to some people. I imagine these people must have a different color of sky in their universe.
Bezos goes on to say the people who believe the decision was in fear of Trump retaliation are mistaken:
I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here. Neither campaign nor candidate was consulted or informed at any level or in any way about this decision. It was made entirely internally.
But that is not what the “journalists” and subscribers want to hear. They insist they need to be told to do what they already planned to do. And if Bezos’ newspaper is not going to do that, then they are going to stomp their feet and pout:
NPR reported Tuesday that The Post has shed more than a whopping 250,000 subscribers since it revealed its editorial board would not formally endorse Vice President Kamala Harris after it had planned to do so.
…
A veteran Washington Post insider tells Fox News Digital that Monday’s initial NPR report noting the massive drop in subscribers was “the talk of the newsroom.”
“People are outraged at such a boneheaded decision,” the insider said.
This is further evidence of the emotional basis of their belief system. Their belief system is not based on facts and rational thought. If it were, they would not require the opinion writers of a newspaper to reinforce their faith. They need a power figure to maintain that faith. That their faith leader failed to do this is heretical.
See also Jeff Bezos speaks on WaPo drama: We have to ‘increase our credibility’ (msn.com).
Bezos should be careful. Heretics/traitors are considered worse than simple non-believers.
The LA Times owner wanted his paper to do a policy side by side analysis. The staff refused so he killed the editorial. Should have fired them though I guess a bunch saved him the trouble and resigned.
Crocodile tears. His swipe at “unresearched” podcasts is particularly galling considering how much research and fact checking many of the best podcasts do. Just think how many articles his paper has breathlessly run citing nothing other than “anonymous sources close to…” or “an official not permitted to comment on…” that ultimately proved to be pure fabrication. All of my top podcasts post show notes with links to their source material. CNN doesn’t do that, Fox doesn’t do that, and the Post doesn’t either.
A good reputation takes years to build. Honestly reporting on the whole of government – not just your political opponents – would go a long way to build that trust back. But I’m not going to hold my breath.
I was somewhat impressed by his voting machine analogy. I refer to this as the “Joe Sixpack rule” — an election system needs to be sufficiently clear and reliable that the vast majority of ordinary Americans (when looking at things fairly) will believe that the system is working correctly.
He badly missed the corollary, though: no “voting machine” can meet the Joe Sixpack test. By “voting machine” I mean the old style machines with levers, or the newer variant with touch screens and computers running some sort of software inside.
The only valid system is one in which paper ballots are the official record. It’s ok for a ballot to be printed from touch screen inputs, if for some strange reason people think it is easier to manipulate a touch screen than a pencil. But the paper must be directly readable by the voter, and what the voter sees on the paper must be what is counted. For example, here in NH we have mark sense ballots: a large sheet of paper with names on it and circles next to each name, which you slip into a scanner/counter that sits on top of the ballot box. Normally the tally is simply taken from the counters in that machine, but if needed a recount can be done simply by reading each ballot with your unaided eyes.
I once saw mention of a paper ballot scheme where the scanned vote is represented by a QR code. That won’t do because humans can’t read QR codes.
Bezo’s is going to find out the hard way you can buy your way into a communist newspaper. But you can’t buy your way out.
The problem is not the paper he bought. The problem is communist professors in journalism school. And the students that passed with a degree.
And for Jeffy almost the only persons available to write for his paper.
That and the fact that organized media as a whole has that bad reputation.
And the ode-de-communism isn’t going away because he’s an oh so very important person. 400′ ft. yacht aside.
A major rule in life is one “oh shit”, will wipe out ten “atta-boys”.
Sorry Jeff, it was a bad investment. (Just raise the price of all your Chinese crap 5 cents and you’ll be whole in no time.)
If he really wanted to regain trust, the Post could turn its front page over to retractions and apologies for the falsehoods it has promoted over the last 10 years or so.