From The Editor’s Desk: Don’t Punish Journalists For The Malfeasance of Billionaire Owners

Over the past week, the news-publishing world has been rocked by controversy after the owners of leading national newspapers overrode the desires of their staff, dictating the outlets wouldn’t endorse a presidential candidate. 

It was announced Oct. 25 Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and multi-billionaire owner of The Washington Post, decided the newspaper would not endorse either Vice President Kamala Harris or former President Donald Trump, The Associated Press reported. The decision went against the wishes of The Post’s editorial board, of which three members have since resigned. 

Since Bezos’ decision was publicized, more than 200,000 people have canceled their subscriptions to the paper and many of its own journalists have publicly criticized the move. The Post’s decision followed a similar refusal to endorse a candidate by the owner of The Los Angeles Times. 

Bezos claimed in the opinion pages of The Post he made the decision to combat perceptions of media bias — but I don’t buy it. Bezos has 206.2 billion reasons for the decision he made, and I can say with near 100% certainty the public’s trust in media isn’t one of them.

Whether Bezos fears retribution under a second Trump administration or he’s hoping for favorable policies which aid his business ventures, it’s clear to me, at least, his decision was one based in deep, dark cynicism. 

If Bezos does in fact fear retribution, that in and of itself speaks to how not endorsing contradicts The Post’s own creed — “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” While it may reek of gross self-importance, this slogan is true. Journalists act as a bellwether against corruption and creeping authoritarianism. 

During the Trump era, The Post printed invaluable in-depth information on the misdeeds of the increasingly fascistic former President’s administration, most notably their Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on the Jan. 6 insurrection. 

It’s for this very reason we shouldn’t be rushing to cancel our subscriptions. Doing so does nothing more than scratch at Bezos while taking resources away from journalists already struggling under the weight of the digital media environment and a major party candidate who’s openly hostile to the notion of a free press. 

No publication is perfect, nor are the journalists whose names appear below its banner, but the work is important. Especially at times like these, when our democracy is facing an existential threat, we need to be supporting reporters and their work. 

One of my favorite journalists, The Washington Post’s White House economics reporter Jeff Stein, put it perfectly while addressing the crux of the issue in an Oct. 29 X post. 

“I could try a Substack where I spout off whatever happens to be in my head that day,” Stein wrote. “I could work for a publication that only caters to lobbyists and elite insiders. But there are precious few publications still doing the coverage — however incomplete; however still in need of improvement — aimed at serving the broader public at large. I believe The Washington Post is one of them.” 

While you won’t find an official endorsement of any candidate from our editorial board in the pages of this week’s Phoenix — we feel to do so would be stepping outside our parameters as a hyper-local, student newspaper — if you couldn’t tell from above, we’re not going back.