The Washington Post announced today that the paper isn’t endorsing a presidential candidate for the first time in decades. The paper’s publisher and CEO, sketchy former News Corp guy William Lewis, attempted to explain the decision in a logically incoherent column. (For real, go read it. It’s smug, inconsistent bullshit on stilts and absolutely unconvincing.)
Post sources suspect the paper’s owner, Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos, killed an endorsement of Harris because he’s a chickenshit. Former editor Marty Baron called the paper out on right-wing oligarch Elon Musk’s crappy hellsite:
This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty. @realdonaldtrump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner @jeffbezos (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.
Baron is alluding to the time when Trump corruptly steered a $10B government cloud computing contract to Microsoft instead of Amazon because Trump was pissed about The Post’s critical coverage of his disastrous presidency. The implication is Bezos is hedging his bets in case Trump wins. The LA Times’ controversial decision to not endorse a presidential candidate was apparently also made by a chickenshit billionaire owner.
From the vantage point of a regular person, you might suppose that a man who has more money than 20 generations of descendants could spend in a thousand lifetimes would have the courage to stand up to a feeble, two-bit thug like Trump. But as we’ve seen repeatedly, amassing billions of dollars tends to morally deform people. They just want more, more, more.
The non-endorsement doesn’t amount to a hill of beans as far as the current presidential race is concerned; it was unlikely to move a single vote. But it is yet another sign of institutional rot. And that sucks.
Open thread.
Baud
Every such failure either inspires voters to join with us to preserve democracy and freedom, or it doesn’t.
They’re counting on the latter.
HumboldtBlue
Brings in criminal Brits to run the joint, this isn’t a surprise.
JMG
Just another data point showing that if Trump wins, our society’s institutions will be either passively silent or active collaborators in authoritarianism.
cain
It’s not about the money, it’s about getting his pet projects moving forward – like that space program that he’s been involved in.
He’s more worried that Trump will win and that Trump will target him. He’s right, but he apparently doesn’t give a shit about the rest of us being targeted. This man is unhinged and he will try to put all of us in jail for contributing to the Democratic party.
laura
Jeff Bezos is a gutless fucking wonder and he needs the Government to bring the dusty and woefully underused Big Antitrust Boot to crush his concentrated businesses and pay his fucking taxes. Also, fuck that guy.
scav
It will be interesting to see which of the entitled bazillonaies can destroy his media (old school v new school) hobby first. They competed going to space, they competed running their business toys, now they’re competing over how much they can break their toys, industries and general environment. Biggest breaker wins!
Shalimar
Bezos was morally deformed already when he founded Amazon. I read the first biography about the founding back in 2001 or so. He was the ultimate salesman, willing to be anything you wanted him to be if you would buy what he was selling. A man with no personal ethics whatsoever. His goal was to get rich, and he did
edit: what I will say for him is that he wasn’t a conman. He didn’t lie or cheat to get what he wanted. Which is better than 90% of the people who become billionaires. But he adopted as his personal code “the customer is always right”. Which is not personal ethics. It’s just sales.
Steve LaBonne
@Shalimar: Those are the only people who actually do get that rich.
Steve LaBonne
@HumboldtBlue: That was supposed to be about addressing the decline in subscriptions. If it were really about that you’d have to say Bezos doesn’t understand much about the paper’s actual and potential subscriber base.
Suzanne
@Shalimar:
You mean my social betters?!
Fuck these people. Have some fucking integrity.
NaijaGal
This probably fits better in this thread than where I originally posted it (the thread below).
I cancelled my LA Times subscription this morning after the owner decided to openly display his cowardice and inflict it on the editorial team.
I no longer subscribe to the New York Times or the Washington Post. There has to be another way for the print news media in the US to thrive (ownership by billionaires doesn’t seem to be working out too well).
I had no idea until yesterday that the LA Times owner was South African born and friendly with Elon Musk.
My remaining newspaper subscription is the Philadelphia Inquirer. I went from subscribing to tons of newspapers in 2017 (I already had long time NYT and WaPo subscriptions) in the vain hope that they would help protect democracy to unsubscribing from almost all of them this year because of boneheaded decisions by their owners.
I’m just one person and I’m sure none of them care about my subscriptions but it is scary to me how the US news media are essentially owned by people who think they would be better off with lower taxes and that nothing else matters (because they believe their money will protect them if fascism comes and they know that Democrats don’t play the revenge game). No moral courage in evidence.
ETtheLibrarian
The editor likely just had to write some for a decision he might not have agreed with.
Of course this should mean that going forward they get out of the endorsement business at every level of government for the DC area, but since this was chickenshit they will come with another illogical reason why they are doing endorsements.
Old School
David_C
Marty Baron is not happy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/10/25/washington-post-endorsement-president/
HumboldtBlue
bjacques
I think Bezos finally learned from Murdoch, that the loss of revenue and reputation pale in comparison to the media outlet’s value in swaying public opinion to grease the skids for tax giveaways and sweet, sweet government contracts and subsidies. The Post, NYT, WSJ, etc., are simply fuel to reach tax escape velocity for their owners and their friends.
different-church-lady
The only reason democracy didn’t die four years ago was because enough people refused to go along.
We may not get so lucky this time.
hrprogressive
Corprofascist Shareholders control and own our media
If this slate of “non endorsements” which are functionally tacit endorsements of Fascism and Convicted Felon Donald Trump doesn’t convince the American people of this truth, not sure anything else will.
Baud
@HumboldtBlue:
He doesn’t sound too confident.
Omnes Omnibus
@different-church-lady: Luck has fuck all to do with it. We did the work last time. To the best of my knowledge, we are doing the work this time as well.
EngineerScotty
I posed this question at LGM, and I’ll pose it here.
Is this because Bezos is afraid of retaliation from Trump?
Or is he pissed at the Biden/Harris administration for their pro-labor stance, including quite a bit of assistance from the administration targeted at Amazon shops?
(Or some combination of both?)
The new publisher was brought in many months ago, and the Post‘s coverage has likewise been going downhill. I don’t think this is because Bezos is looking at the polls and getting cold feet.
(And I have no reason whatsoever to think that the similar decision by the Times was made due to fear of retaliation by a future Trump administration).
Jay
As seen in an earlier thread, WaPo’s new banner:
“Democracy Dies In The Darkness, You Want It Darker, We Kill The Flame.”
Princess
If you want to hit back at Bezos, cancel your Amazon Prime subscription. He’ll happily watch the Post go bankrupt. But Amazon is his bread and butter.
Elizabelle
I just cancelled WaPost. Does not run out until next August, so will keep those gift links coming. Also just cancelled the Los Angeles Times. That ends November 13.
Jesus, I hate seeing Putz Sulzberger look like the courageous one. Yech.
Hearing the Philly Inquirer endorsed Kamala. Need to check on the Miami Herald.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
The owners of the LA Times and WA Post are cowardly cowards, but it does seem to me that nobody (voters) younger than me gives a damn about newspaper endorsements anymore, and I’m 73. It’s a terrible sign for journalism, but what else is new (sigh).
HumboldtBlue
@NaijaGal:
You’re not alone, media consumption has changed drastically since Trump showed up and exposed corporate media for what it is.
cain
@NaijaGal:
At last, these the newspapers are revealing their true colors and ending the old guard newspapers.
Fuck em. Let’s make new ones or just switch to using mastodon and bluesky.
JML
It’s sad, because at the time a lot of people thought Bezos was buying the Post as almost an altruistic option, giving it the financial clout to survive as a great national newspaper with real investigative clout, rather than bending to the almighty bottom line at all times. Seems clear now that he bought it to have a media tool in his arsenal to advance his other interests (business or otherwise) and gives zero fucks about journalism.
As always, eat the rich.
Math Guy
@NaijaGal: For-profit media has failed us. We would be better off supporting smaller online operations, like this nearly top 10,000 blog, that can’t be corrupted by a profit motive.
Elizabelle
@Princess: Yep. Amazon goes too.
Is Bezos also ownership at Whole Foods? Not that I shop there, except for the occasional (beautiful) special cake.
Bill Arnold
It’s pragmatic cowardice.
Anger Trump, and there will be a high probability of retribution if Trump wins the election, because Mr T is an uncivilized barbarian mob boss, who believes in no laws but the law of selfishness.
Anger Harris, and there will be no significant consequences if she wins, because she is a civilized woman who clearly believes in the rule of law.
Grotesque.
BR
Volunteering update:
* Dropped off 1000 postcards for Arizona today
* About to do a phone bank to Nevada
What’s everyone here signed up for?
KatKapCC
@HumboldtBlue: How on Earth does “Let’s not even count the votes” align with “We can’t disenfranchise the voters”?
Zelma
Well, I just cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post. I was thinking about it before today’s cowardly pre-submission to an aspiring autocrat. But this was the proverbial straw.
The Post has been going downhill since Barron left, mostly because Bezos made bad selections as his successors. First the woman from AP and now an alumni of British newspapers. Barron had a vision of what the Post should be – a defender of democracy. The AP clearly had no such vision and neither did whatever her name was. And as for the Brit, what a joke.
May I suggest that any refugees from the LA Times or the Post consider The Philadelphia Inquirer? It has an unusual ownership set-up – sort of like a public/private partnership and it just endorsed Harris. I just subscribed today and they have a $1/month deal for 6 months, or at least they offered me one. I used to get it every morning but they stopped delivering it and getting it in the mail didn’t work for me. But I often bought the paper when I went to Wawa in the morning. Now I’ve resubscribed.
I have been unhappy with the Post for quite some time and I hate to admit that what I will miss most is Caroline Hax.
KatKapCC
@Princess: People can certainly do so, but Bezos is so obscenely rich that every single Prime member could cancel and it wouldn’t even be a drop in the bucket.
Elizabelle
@JML: Bought it to ruin it. As did Musk w Twitter. They both have money to burn, along with millions hoping they will incinerate on their way to space.
The WaPost will not get it back its credibility under this owner and publisher. I wonder if they could sell the paper to the journalists or a consortium. Not that either should pay inflated price for a paper that just dumped thousands of its subscribers.
JPL
If the Post published their endorsement, there would be a big shrug, Instead Bezos wanted to prove to the world that he was a big an asshole as trump,
Reminder for those with Amazon wishlists, check Target for items. They have free shipping at 35.00
Baud
Shout out to Bill Gates and Mark Cuban for doing what they can to salvage the reputation of billionaires.
different-church-lady
@Omnes Omnibus: I don’t mean in terms of voting: I mean in terms of people in power not going along with efforts to overturn the vote.
Elizabelle
@KatKapCC: True. But it would get his attention.
TBone
Betty Cracker, I remember you said you like America’s Test Kitchen so I thought I’d let you know that CreateTV station is airing a mini marathon tonight, if you get that channel.
(It might vary due to locality though.)
ETA also, as a general PSA to all, TCM is airing All The President’s Men, especially fittingly now, methinks, at 8pm.
different-church-lady
@JPL:
Now there’s a futile endeavor.
badgirl
@NaijaGal: Excellent comment! I just cancelled my WaPo subscription.
Velocifowl
@Princess:
That won’t do squat. The real money is in AWS. So unless you run the government or a massive corporation you can’t do shit to Bezos.
KatKapCC
@Elizabelle: True. It would probably piss him off, which would be lovely.
TBone
@Old School: 😓
Bill Arnold
Sigh, command line mangled a bit by visual mode comment editor, so removed.
TBone
@laura: 💙
Citizen Dave
Soon we’ll be able to use either palm to move about the concentration camp, like we can use it to pay at Whole Foods. Fascist Progress.
Elizabelle
Watching for what Jennifer Rubin will say. And others.
Robert Kagan resigned from the WaPost’s editorial board today.
espierce
Cancelled my Post subscription when they brought Lewis on last spring.
Bezos is reportedly frightened about the Musk/SpaceX/Trump relationship that may well infringe on his ability to keep stacking up the Benjamin’s.
Fuck those people and LFG Kamala!
Sure Lurkalot
It seems that the endorsement story has pushed the reporting about Musk’s secret communications with Putin off the front page.
I agree with this guy…is this cowardice? 3-letter agency fuckery?
Fred Wellman
@FPWellman
6h
KatKapCC
Speaking of Bezos and his financial hoard, this site gives a pixel visualization of wealth — $1,000 to $68,000 to one million to one billion and then to $185 billion, which at least at the time this was made was Bezos’ wealth. It’s honestly kind of sickening to see how long you have to scroll right to make it to the end. Little factoids pop up as you scroll and it just makes me want to scream. No one should be allowed to have that much money. After that it jumps to $3.2 trillion, which is the total wealth of the 400 richest Americans, which if you don’t just grab and drag the scroll bar at the bottom, would probably take you like an hour to scroll through.
Dangerman
Sooner or later, the MAGAts will realize they were played by the Bazillionaires like Bezos. Sleep tight; don’t let the horse head in your bed bother you.
sab
@different-church-lady: Does anybody these days actually give a shit about newspaper endorsements?
Old School
Argiope
Welp, cancelled WaPo and adding the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Josie
This is so obviously true and is something I just can’t wrap my head around. How can someone who thinks like this ever be happy?
Zelma
I wish I could do without Amazon but I can’t. I live in a shopping desert and my only option is Walmart which I will not use except in dire circumstances. I’m too old to drive half an hour to the nearest Target or 45 minutes to the nearest department store.
Mr. Bemused Senior
@Bill Arnold: thanks for the hint 😄
TBone
@Sure Lurkalot: wonkette’s reporting on fElon’s Russia malarkey is also excellent (despite the headline):
https://www.wonkette.com/p/maybe-elon-musk-is-the-2024-russian
Velocifowl
@Sure Lurkalot:
It has always worked like this. You can’t get TS if you have done LSD. Steve Jobs did LSD and advocated for it and he got cleared because they needed access to apple.
The rules have always been for the little people. Elon is enabling China and Russia. They won’t do anything to him because they can’t. He owns the assets they need. If they make a move on him he can hit back.
This is the point of capitalism. He already won.
Baud
@Elizabelle: Good for him.
WaterGirl
@BR: One thousand postcards. Amazing.
realbtl
@Old School:
The Grateful Dead were not so much music as shared experience. some love it, some don’t but for those of us who like it the experience was something special. One night at Redrocks in Denver I could have sworn they were controlling the weather, great swooshs of sound accompanied by rising wind. And no I wasn’t tripping. RIP
Elizabelle
Nothing from JenRubin, but her column today is filled w reader commenters saying goodbye; they have cancelled (and will follow her wherever she goes next).
kindness
Bezos is such a jerk. He has actual tens of billions of dollars. Donald Trump doesn’t. How can Bezos look at this race and think Donald Trump is likely to be the winner? Jesus….
Sure Lurkalot
@KatKapCC: Thanks for posting that wealth scale link! I have had that visual saved in my Favorites for a while now.
Bezos is worth about $200B. For grins, let’s say he wanted to spend all that before he dies at 90 (30ish years from now), he’d have to blow through over $18 million per day. Every billionaire is a policy failure (h/t Comrade Scott, though he’s not around today).
Melancholy Jaques
I don’t think it’s cowardice as much as a desire to help Trump win and a callous disregard for the consequences if he does.
Elizabelle
@Zelma: We forgive you!
Jay
@Zelma:
As pointed out above, Target has free shipping on orders over $35.
Lots of places offer this these days, clothing stores, hardware stores, grocery stores, heck, even my local Flyfishing store.
It’s to compete with Amazon vendors.
And if it’s a local store, it will often be same day or next day delivery.
trollhattan
WaPo, probably. “Trump campaign complains about Harris campaign manipulating woman into accusing Trump of sexual assault.”
Elizabelle
Philly Inquirer endorsed Kamala today. Delighted to subscribe to them.
Chris
From the article:
As LGM’s best commenter pointed out a couple of hours ago: imagine thinking “Adlai Stevenson was so fuckin’ dangerous we had to endorse Ike, but Trump? Nah.”
But that really is the media’s worldview in a nutshell. A liberal whose worst trait is that his academic bent allows him to be portrayed as slightly dorky, but who has the audacity of running against War Hero And Serious Man Of Integritude Ike Eisenhower is literally worse than an actual-factual fascist who gave the national government its first coup attempt in the entire country’s history.
Baud
@Elizabelle:
Awesome. Integrity.
realbtl
O/T T just said Jack Smith should be deported from the country. What more proof do the media need?
Princess
All those people who think Trump won’t tank the economy with his tariffs because the billionaires will put their foot down —- hahahaha.
zhena gogolia
@Elizabelle: Oh, good, I’m a subscriber too, thanks to BJ, but I never read any newspapers.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
You’re funny.
mrmoshpotato
@Dangerman:
Doubtful. They’ve been getting played by an orange shitstain fake billionaire for years.
Baud
Kamala’s Houston event is tonight, with Beyonce and Willie. That should be a nice pick us up.
lowtechcyclist
@Math Guy:
BJ serves to a certain extent as a news aggregator, but someone else (or rather a fair number of someone elses) have to do the actual reporting. BJ can’t replace that.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Agreed. That’s the big hole in almost all alternative media.
John S.
Rep. Tlaib has also refused to take a stand, and has withheld her endorsement of Harris.
I’m sure someone will come along to explain why it’s ok for her to do it but not Jeff Bezos.
Chris
Again, I can’t emphasize how badly the enshittification of the mainstream media, pointedly not the Fox News ecosystem or the dreaded beast “social media,” has become. They’ve always been impossibly shallow and functionally right-wing rags, whose political bread-and-butter was court gossip, and whose occasional forays into real journalism were very much the exception and not the rule. But it’s gotten much, much worse in the last quarter-century and especially the last four years, in a way that mirrors the Republican Party’s trajectory (which tells you something in and of itself), with their main response to the GOP’s descent into literal fascism being an ever more fanatical descent into shallow gossip and the ironclad principle of “liberals are worse.”
I have no idea what universe the people whining “we can’t bail on the mainstream media! That would make us just like Republicaaans!” think they live in. It’s exactly the kind of bullshit that the court system’s apologists went to for years and years before Dobbs, starting from a dubious principle of “we must respect the institution because we must respect the institution” and following it from there down a rabbit hole of “we need a functioning institution that isn’t a right-wing hacks’ convention, therefore we must pretend that this is in fact that functioning institution, even as it continues its transformation into a right-wing hacks’ convention.” Living in the Bezos and Sulzberger echo chambers doesn’t actually make you more sophisticated than living in the Murdoch and Musk ones, especially as these echo chambers work furiously to continue becoming the Murdoch and Musk ones, as illustrated most graphically by Bezos’ choices running the WaPo.
Ruckus
Used to take the LA Times and WSJ (owned a business)
I noticed that the reality was that both were a waste of paper, ink and my money.
This was 20 yrs ago.
Haven’t missed them in the least, other than the comics in the LA Times. I’ve managed to not notice after about a month……
caphilldcne
Just cancelled after decades of subscribing. Those motherfuckers will never get a dime from me again. Fuck Bezos. Fuck that immigrant Lewis, British Tory BS. Go back to England. I prefer decent people immigrate here pretty much everyone other than Elon, Thiel, Trump’s grandfather and Lewis. Literally the worst. slsk I have to cancel Amazon prime. Goddamn it I am so mad I could spit. Guess I should have seen the cowards getting ready to capitulate.
TBone
@Baud: live updates at
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/10/25/beyonce-kamala-harris-houston-rally-updates/75829404007/
Jay
@Baud:
There are a significant amount of local online media that do their own reporting and investigations.
My local one is The Tyee, (BC and Alberta mostly).
Baud
@TBone:
I don’t like giving the campaign advice, but I would personally love it if she said
“Billionaire media owners are cowering before Trump, but we’re not weak like they are. We’re not going back.”
lowtechcyclist
@Dangerman:
For how many decades have we been waiting for white working class men to wake up to the reality that rich white men are the people doing the most to make their lives suck?
When I go to my grave sometime around mid-century, I fully expect we’ll still be waiting.
beckya57
@Princess: did that today (cancelled my WaPo years ago).
lowtechcyclist
@Zelma:
Target delivers, just like Amazon does.
trollhattan
RIP Phil Lesh.
Chris
@cain:
“Hang together, hang separately,” etc.
One of the things we’re absolutely going to see in a world where the U.S. goes full Trumpist is Trump looking for large corporate empires that he can use the government to completely loot and pillage the way Putin did to Khodorkhovsky’s.
Jeff Bezos is possibly the most attractive target in the entire country for that sort of treatment. He’s had run-ins with Trump in the past, he’s a rival of Trump’s current BFF Elon Musk, he runs the Washington Post which in Trump’s head will never be anything but a Woke Liberal Hellmouth, and, well, he’s in the news a lot which alone means he’s likelier to get attention.
But our rich people have depended on elite solidarity to protect them from this sort of contretemps for over a hundred years, and they’re still far too obsessed with the specter of FDR the Socialist to ever go all-in on the other party. So Bezos would rather make a meager and symbolic peace offering in Trump’s direction than back the side of democracy.
Chris
@Shalimar:
Nobody builds that sort of empire and rises to that sort of wealth without being morally deformed in some way.
Miki
Which comes first – institutional rot or moral deformity? For sure, for certain media institutions anyway, one cannot exist without the other. See, e.g., WSJ’s Emma Tucker’s morally deformed Truth Nanny shit pile.
As with SCOTUS, the worst of them keep making things worse for the institution.
SMFH.
something fabulous
Canceled. Had been thinking was time as an LA-er it was time to switch to the LA Times. Whoops. Guess I’m person without a paper at the moment. Odd feeling.
Baud
@something fabulous:
LA Times had been starting to get a good rep among liberals. Then their owner stepped in it.
Scout211
Good for the Philadelphia Inquirer. I’d even say the New York Post was good for making an endorsement. The wrong one, but still.
Add The Houston Chronicle, which endorsed Kamala Harris today.
Elizabelle
@zhena gogolia: Lol.
FelonyGovt
@JML: Similarly when Patrick Soon-Shiong bought the LA Times it was thought to be a noble gesture to wrest the paper back from its evil overlords in Chicago and restore it to local ownership. Turns out he’s as chickenshit as Bezos and friends with Elmo. I’m so disgusted.
BR
@WaterGirl:
Thanks! How’s everyone’s volunteering going? Anyone have phone banks or canvassing scheduled for today?
TBone
@TBone: oops
Livestream
https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/10/25/beyonce-kamala-harris-houston-rally-watch/75846995007/
Miki
@Elizabelle: Me too. WAPO is not just the ball less witless wonders – there are some serious journalists there doing serious work.
Citizen Alan
@John S.: it’s not okay for her to do it. In fact, it is contemptible!
eemom
I generally agree with y’all LGM haters, but they do have a good lead for this abomination.
trollhattan
@FelonyGovt: Plus his kid is weird.
TBone
@Baud: 💙💪
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Velocifowl:
Um, no. I had TS/SCI clearances (and was read into other even higher compartments) back when I was an intel officer.
I did LSD in college.
Now, they initially decided against granting me a clearance when I went into that bidness outta grad school. I appealed and my bosses went to bat for me on the appeal and thus, I got my clearances.
Their concern at the time was I left that out on my application. I put down other drug usage during college but not everything. They found out and that was the issue. Not that I’d done it 2 years or more prior, but that I didn’t lay everything out on the table.
When my clearance renewal came up 5 years later, and I brought it up and their answer was “That’s ancient history.”
trollhattan
Voter suppression, it’s what’s for dinner.
Another Scott
@John S.: She’s still got a week or so, if 2020 is anything to go by.
Cheers,
Scott.
Harrison Wesley
I was a Philly Inquirer reader while I lived there, and always liked it. Reading favorable stuff about it recently makes me smile. If I didn’t already subscribe to a paper here in FL, I might subscribe to the Inky again.
SW
Prime: Tell the world you have Peyronie’s disease without telling the world you have Peyronie’s disease. Brought to you by Jeff “twisted dick” Bezos.
Jay
thread,
https://nitter.poast.org/SevaUT/status/1849473334834065493#m
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Scout211:
The Chron’s been an interesting thing to watch since 2008 when they endorsed Obama, their first (D) endorsement in 44 years.
In 2012, they had no endorsement but since then, it’s been (D) endorsements.
The Chron can endorse democracy but the Wa(com)Post can’t.
I stopped subscribing to my hometown newspaper years ago and have never regretted it.
sab
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: I did LSD once in high school and it was very traumatizing.
something fabulous
@Zelma: Someone may already have posted this (will check and update if so) but if you already shop Target, you can have Target deliver, also: https://www.target.com/l/target-circle/-/N-pzno9#Circle360
Peke Daddy
@HumboldtBlue: No thought of disenfranchising Harris voters, though. Only poll that counts is on 11/5/2024.
artem1s
@Argiope: Cleveland PD noped out on endorsing in 2004 – the editorial board was going to endorse Kerry but the owners said no. I canceled my subscription. Since then they have been pretty much in the Geauga County GOP’s pocket. They have had two articles by one editor this year about the obvious lack of qualifications of TCF (deathly silent 2015-2023). Not worth the money IMO. I’d recommend you try the Akron Beacon Journal instead.
Math Guy
Don’t forget the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
FelonyGovt
@trollhattan: Who’s his kid? I must’ve missed something.
something fabulous
@Baud: Right? so bizarre. Definitely not reading the room, so to speak, that guy.
Trivia Man
@Old School: Phil was the intangible ingredient that turned them from a good band into MAGIC. They each had a unique musical background and a willingness to accept each other’s contributions – and that made the whole much more than just a bunch of parts with good musicians.
I’ll try to find one of the videos that separates out his bass line – it really has to be heard to be believed.
Great memories and I plan to enjoy his art for many years into the future. Fare Thee Well.
NotMax
Is phone banking at all useful in an era when, as has been stated many times before, people don’t pick up calls from an unrecognized number?
something fabulous
@something fabulous: –sorry for the pile-on! of course folks already had! Anyway hope the link to the 360 might be useful! (too late to update in the edit window for that comment! am a rusty commenter! :) )
Urza
Just to be clear, that $10B contract that went to Microsoft was taken away during the Biden administration. After a whole lot of work I might add.
Trivia Man
@Trivia Man: Try this:
https://youtu.be/zCy2FCjN3MU?si=_2wu2XxZxnB6Oasi&t=177
something fabulous
In both these cases, it would have been different, I think, if they like, last year or before that even, made this “principled” move back to their roots or whatever. Still pretty clear what they’d be on about, but less– nakedly cowardly and hypocritical.
So maybe it’s better they waited, after all! Pretty fucking clear, this way.
Trivia Man
@bjacques: same reason wingnut radio and TV has wall to wall BUY GOLD ads and other dreck. They. Don’t. Care. It is a loss leader that pays off in supreme court decisions and has nothing to do with advertising or paying subscribers.
laura
@John S.: I’ll try an explainer- Congresswoman Tailb answers to her constituents and they have the opportunity to review her role, legislation and policy choices and either reelect her every two years or replace her. She does not own a nation newspaper.
Compare and contrast one Jeff Bezos. Jeff is a billionaire who owns a National Newspaper with a history of informing the citizenry even when power people would rather avoid scrutiny when doing business, governing and/or committing or covering up crimes.
We are a week and change away from an election and the outcome may matter to people you know- possibly even yourself. Our elections; as any part of our government; requires an informed citizenry. By not making an endorsement, Bezos has chosen to side with candidate trump. Readers are pissed and rightfully so.
To conclude, Rashida Tlaib has no obligation to the voters outside her district and Jeff Bezo had an obligation to have the Post endorse a presidential candidate.
Hope that clears things up for you.
different-church-lady
@Dangerman:
Oops, I think I see the problem.
satby
DougJ drops the Pitchbot for a thread. Threadroll at the link.
different-church-lady
It’s frightening to think the malls killed Main Street, and then Amazon killed the malls, and something unfathomable will someday kill Amazon.
SW
@Trivia Man: Buy Gold! “Paper money is practically worthless. Yet for some reason I am willing to trade your worthless paper for glittering gold.”
karen marie
As long as we’re talking about cowards, how about the massive cowards at the US Naval Academy?
And we all know that under a potential second Individual-1 administration, the only “way to think” is whatever the people running Individual-1’s cult say it is. What the people at the Naval Academy fail to realize is, it doesn’t matter whether they “follow the rules,” because under Individual-1’s cult, the rules change with the breeze.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@different-church-lady:
The long awaited asteroid strike that will reset the planet?
sab
Elizabelle
re the LA Times owner quashing a Kamala endorsement: should be a free click:
LA Magazine:
Mariel Garza, Editor of the Los Angeles Times Editorial Page, Resigns After Owner Blocks Presidential Endorsement
Garza’s resignation follows Patrick Soon-Shiong’s refusal to allow editors to pen endorsement
terraformer
Between this and the LA Times, I’m reminded of this article on “anticipatory obedience” from the Columbia Journalism Review.
They saw this coming, and boy howdy….
KatKapCC
@different-church-lady: Excellent read.
sab
@different-church-lady: Probably our neighborhood craft and food store will kill Amazon.
Elizabelle
From Los Angeles Magazine link, above:
Editorial Page Editor Mariel Garza’s resignation letter to LA Times Executive Editor Terry Tang:
Terry,
Ever since Dr. Soon-Shiong vetoed the editorial board’s plan to endorse Kamala Harris for president, I have been struggling with my feelings about the implications of our silence.
I told myself that presidential endorsements don’t really matter; that California was not ever going to vote for Trump; that no one would even notice; that we had written so many “Trump is unfit” editorials that it was as if we had endorsed her.
But the reality hit me like cold water Tuesday when the news rippled out about the decision not to endorse without so much as a comment from the LAT management, and Donald Trump turned it into an anti-Harris rip.
Of course it matters that the largest newspaper in the state—and one of the largest in the nation still—declined to endorse in a race this important. And it matters that we won’t even be straight with people about it.
It makes us look craven and hypocritical, maybe even a bit sexist and racist. How could we spend eight years railing against Trump and the danger his leadership poses to the country and then fail to endorse the perfectly decent Democrat challenger—who we previously endorsed for the US Senate?
The non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make, down to school board races. People will justifiably wonder if each endorsement was a decision made by a group of journalists after extensive research and discussion, or through decree by the owner.
Seven years ago, the editorial board wrote this in its series about Donald Trump “Our Dishonest President”: “Men and women of conscience can no longer withhold judgment. Trump’s erratic nature and his impulsive, demagogic style endanger us all.”
I still believe that’s true.
In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity. I’m standing up by stepping down from the editorial board. Please accept this as my formal resignation, effective immediately.
Mariel
To repeat:
And neutrality (and pre-obedience!) helps the aggressor.
Ohio Mom
@John S.: I agree with you and Citizen Alan that Rep. Tlaib not endorsing Harris is contemptible but really, there is no comparison between a lone Representative who is um, known for her outlier views and has little influence as a result of those views, and one of our country’s largest and most influential newspapers refusing to take a stand.
You are basically downplaying and dismissing how noteworthy the Post’s surrender is, and what they surrender says about the state of our media.
Apples and oranges doesn’t even begin to describe the difference.
Elizabelle
@satby: Thank you satby, especially for the threadroll.
SomeRandomGuy
To be brutally fair: Bezos could be thinking of the “little people” who will be harmed if Trump engages in retaliation.
To be even more brutally fair: he shoulda thought of that before buying a fucking NEWSPAPER, right Mr. Bezos, professional smart guy? You *knew* you’d piss off people. If you weren’t ready to do that, you weren’t ready to own a newspaper.
Lyrebird
@Elizabelle: Thank you for posting the editor’s full letter here. Examples of courage shine a light that goes far.
Elizabelle
Cartoonist Ann Telnaes just put up a cartoon.
No figures. It is just darkness. Good for her! The Post staff is fighting back, and they published this one.
Elizabelle
@Lyrebird: I suspect a lot of WaPost staff have read that letter, over and over again today.
The silence interests me. Who knows what is going on?
karen marie
@Jay: My problem is that everyone wants you to pay a subscription. I’m very irritated at Fry’s/Kroger and their delivery service. Last month I started paying $7.95/month for “free” next-day deliveries (on orders over $35) so that I don’t have to lug 64-ounce bottles of juice up the stairs (I like to buy four at a time, so I can not think about it for a while). The last two orders, half of what I ordered was “not available.” And that was chocolate chips that were advertised as on sale (second time in a month that has happened – both them being on sale and “unavailable”) and the four bottles of juice. All I got was half and half and butter, which I could have gone to the store and gotten myself, saving the $7.95/month plus the 10% tip on the entire $65 order that ended up being a $25 order.
I’ve had a similar problem with Albertsons/Safeway – the last two times I placed a delivery order that included 12-packs of club soda (they’re the only store that sells such a thing), they were “out of club soda.”
I don’t know that it’s not just lazy delivery people, because I have received deliveries that included cat litter and juice in the past. And you know that if I walk into Fry’s/Kroger today the shelf will be full of juice and chocolate chips.
My advice is, fuck the subscription. Any additional fee you pay for a delivery is going to be far less than the cost of a monthly subscription that you may not use monthly, because, even with the subscription, you have to spend a minimum of $35.
John S.
@Another Scott:
I’m not holding my breath. Circumstances are quite a bit different this time around, and she seems to be entrenched with a bunch of folks who think that holding back support will somehow benefit them.
Elizabelle
Several principled WaPost columnists just dissented. In its entirety:
Post columnists respond
The newspaper’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate is a mistake.
By E.J. Dionne Jr.
,
David Ignatius
,
Ruth Marcus
,
Dana Milbank
,
Eugene Robinson
,
Jennifer Rubin
,
Karen Tumulty
and
Perry Bacon Jr.
October 25, 2024 at 6:50 p.m. EDT
John S.
@laura:
Not at all. I don’t agree that a newspaper owner should be held to a higher standard than an elected official.
Elizabelle
@John S.: Who is your congresscritter, and who is s/he endorsing? Is it likely to be nationwide news, even international?
Didn’t think so.
different-church-lady
@karen marie: All part of the “enshittification” of every single thing.
EngineerScotty
@trollhattan: Lots of states currently have election laws that permit postmarked ballots to arrive after election day.
The ruling in this case appears to apply only to Mississippi, but there is potential for much ratfucking were someone to try and change this right before Nov 5.
TBone
@Elizabelle: brilliant.
different-church-lady
@John S.: I’m thinking Trump’s recent green-light to Netanyahu’s scorched-earth offensive might help get her off the fence.
Elizabelle
Have a comment in moderation. Again: Several WaPost columnists just dissented. They are: EJ Dionne, David Ignatius, Jen Rubin, Perry Bacon, Karen Tumulty, Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank, Eugene Robinson.
Their statement, at 6:50 p tonight:
Post columnists respond
The newspaper’s refusal to endorse a presidential candidate is a mistake.
October 25, 2024 at 6:50 p.m. ED
EngineerScotty
Enshittification is a big reason why “the economy sux” is a common sentiment.
Much of the 2010s economy, including most of Obama’s terms and much of Trump’s prior to the pandemic, was a period in which venture capital was essentially subsidizing a lot of people’s lifestyles. Uber and other delivery services. Search engines. Lots of value was being provided below cost, and/or for free, because investors were chasing market share.
Now, that’s largely gone, and these things all either cost more or are less useful, because the market wants to make money. And in a world of high interest rates, much of the economy is still in “fear” mode (not much new investment, some of which may not pan out with a return, and lots of risk-aversion) vs “greed” mode (lots of new business ventures employing people and/or making cool things below cost to gain market share).
John S.
@Ohio Mom:
I think you are the one drawing false equivalence here.
The Washington Post and LA Times have committed serious journalistic malpractice. But I don’t believe that their influence one way or another would have much effect in the outcome of this election.
By contrast, Rep. Tlaib and her sister are actively whipping Muslims into a frenzy over not voting for Harris. If that costs her Michigan, that could mean the election.
You’re giving Tlaib a huge pass here, and I sincerely hope her antics don’t make a difference.
John S.
@Elizabelle:
Kim Schrier. She isn’t leading a movement to throw the election to Trump.
Gloria DryGarden
@NotMax: they told me as I phone bank I may get one pick up per 10 calls.
SomeRandomGuy
@Elizabelle:
The only thing I’d call out is this:
In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity. I’m standing up by stepping down from the editorial board. Please accept this as my formal resignation, effective immediately.
“Staying silent is complicity,” says what you want; the remaining should be cut, cut CUT. There’s nothing special about THESE times, OKAY? SILENCE=INDIFFERENCE=COMPLICITY. Always. Every single fucking time. What would silence be, if it wasn’t indifference? And what does indifference say, but “you do you, I don’t care”?
Fucking editors never think *they* need to follow the rules. Or maybe it hurts one’s feewings to realize that if silence is always indifference, which is always complicity, there was a lot more complicity than one is comfortable with.
EngineerScotty
@John S.:
There is a big difference between distancing yourself from, and/or not endorsing, the candidate at the top of the ticket, and trying to encourage voters to NOT vote for your candidate’s ticket. Tlaib isn’t endorsing Trump, obviously, but if she’s trying to scuttle Harris’ election, it’s the same thing and she knows what she’s doing.
And the fact that Netanyahu openly wants Trump to win, doesn’t seem to bother her.
Biden refused to be blackmailed when the pin was pulled, so she’s going to try and drop the grenade. Who knows if it’s a dud or not.
And I say this as someone who loathes Bibi and Likud.
EngineerScotty
@SomeRandomGuy: My only concern with editors resigning in protest–is who will replace them.
One thing that the Trumps of the world understand well is this: NEVER resign, never give up. Make them drag you out in a box.
TBone
@Elizabelle: thanks for sharing that.
John S.
@EngineerScotty:
My point exactly.
And as Watergirl posted in an earlier thread, Muslims in Gaza have no qualms about who they want to see elected. They see Trump as a real existential threat — unlike Rep. Tlaib.
Anonymous At Work
Harris should make some changes to the press corps room, honestly. Fox, NYT, LaTimes, and WaPo, plus others that practice “access journalism” should be rotated out for outfits that ask serious, hard-hitting questions, like [no joke] Vogue.
Jay
@karen marie:
No subscriptions here, just free delivery, and if you have a loyalty card, (also free), you can use your points, coupons or accrued dollar benefits after the $35 minimum.
At Mark’s, if you order $35 or more in clothing, delivery is free, and use points, coupons or Canadian Tire dollars, (Canadian Tire owns Marks Work Warehouse), those are discounted from final bill, and even if it dips below $35, delivery is free.
Most places here who have free delivery use their own staff, the same staff that picks pick up orders, to pick the delivery orders. They don’t farm it out to a “shopper app”.
CliosFanBoy
My wife just cancelled our subscription to the WaPost, and it’s our local paper that we’ve gotten for years.
Trivia Man
@realbtl: “We are like licorice. Not everyone likes licorice but the people who do really like it a lot.”
-J Garcia
Jay
https://nitter.poast.org/OlgaNYC1211/status/1849848959206080761#m
Inventor
Subscription cancelled.
lowtechcyclist
@terraformer:
Wow. Extremely insightful.
If Trump wins, most of the mainstream media will fold like an accordion, won’t they?
Not that much of it is standing up to Trump now, but we ain’t seen nothing yet, and I hope we’re lucky enough that we don’t.
Elizabelle
Alexandra Petri put up a great snark column this morning. Her voter guide to issues. Like abortion, guns, and Arnold Palmer’s genitals.
Situation Normal
Well, shit. I opened computer to cancel digital Washington Post subscription and learned that Phil Lesh died. I think I’ll go outside for a while. I see others have been mourning Phil here. As for Wa Po, what Sanders (or a spokesperson from the office) said in November 2016: nothing polite to say.
Bupalos
@Princess: Trump does not care about policy beyond performative spectacle. I doubt he does the tarries or does them like he did the wall.
lowtechcyclist
@Bupalos:
His cult is one of vengeance and retribution – regardless of whether any real harm has been done to justify any of that. Gotta have enemies, and got to stick it to them good and hard. That’s his policies in a nutshell.
So he will do his tariffs because that’s what he thinks they will do. They’re not ‘policy’ in the usual sense of ‘boring details of legislation or foreign policy.’ They’re a club to be wielded against The Other.
The Thin Black Duke
@lowtechcyclist: Trump will do the tariffs because that’s what his Daddy Putin wants.
Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
Most of the press has already self “Orbanized”,
Next will come “Lushankoized”, where in they have to leave the US or be arrested,
After that, they will be “Putinized”, murdered at home or abroad.
So much for their attitude of “the leopards won’t eat my face”.
caphilldcne
@Princess: I plan to do that but need to verify I’ve received everything and spent down every dollar in my account. I think I have a prime gift card out there.
NotMax
@Princess
Amazon Prime is a source for a whole bunch o’ things simply not available otherwise here.
Also too, many mainland online stores will not ship to Hawaii.
Shana
I haven’t canceled my subscription because it’s my local paper, but I did cancel my amazon prime membership and told them why. SIL canceled her LA Times subscription and WaPo but kept her NYT because it’s her local but said “they’re on thin ice”
Not sure any of this makes a difference though. Disturbing how willingly these “tough guys” seem to fall in line. As you said, you’d think their money and power would inure them to the thuggery.
Elizabelle
WaPost’s Karen Tumulty just wrote a great column slapping the Post. Her last paragraph is classic:
Going to share the whole thing, because it’s shortish:
WaPost:
Refusing to endorse a candidate, The Post wounds itself
It is the job of a newspaper editorial board to make judgments on important political questions.
Elizabelle
@Shana: I cancelled my online sub today but — talk about having your cake and eating it too — it does not expire until end of August 2025. Prepaid for $40/year when I called to cancel over whatever Will Lewis did in August.
Anyway: could call them and demand the pro rata share, but gonna watch what they do and share links here. May end up doing that.
Cancelled the LA Times too; that concludes November 13.
Bezos and Will Lewis belong nowhere near a newspaper with any integrity. For Bezos, this is not something anyone is ever going to forget. Sir Will got the job because he is a slimeball, raised at Rupert Murdoch’s knee.
Lily
More information than I’ve seen elsewhere at the CJR
https://www.cjr.org/political_press/the-washington-post-opinion-editor-approved-a-harris-endorsement-a-week-later-the-papers-publisher-killed-it.php
different-church-lady
@NotMax: Which is both the solution and the cause: Amazon’s ubiquity has turned everyone everywhere into a rural denizen of the 1920s fully reliant on the Sears Catalog.
S Cerevisiae
Late to the party as usual but I cancelled my subscription to the WaPo this afternoon because of this bullshit. I hope a million others did too.
PST
I canceled my subscription one minute ago.
Spanish Moss
I just cancelled my Washington Post subscription. I was disappointed that they didn’t give me a text box to say why, all I could do was check a box to say that it was because of the content.
caphilldcne
@John S.: you seem to be a troll of some sort but Rashida Tlaib’s current non-endorsement is wrong but is consistent with her politics and her District and is a frankly minor non-national issue. I’m sure AIPAC will put out solemn ads against her for it, those hypocrites. Whereas the Washington Post’s capitulation is in fact a sign of the loss of an independent free press and a critical loss for democracy. So yes it is a betrayal of the first amendment, independent press and a betrayal of its readership. As such it is infuriating to read you two bit what aboutism.
Wave Function Collapse
Quoting from a Popehat re-skeet on bsky of “missing the point.”
THE WASHINGTON POST
Hello Darkness My Old Friend
NotMax
@different-church-lady
Music maestro, please.
;)
blackmtn
Just canceled my subscription 🤬
Elizabelle
@blackmtn: Proud of all of you (us!) jackals who are cancelling WaPost subscriptions. It’s the only power we have.
A reader commenter described us as feeling “betrayed.”
Yes. And not sticking around for more of it.
SFAW
@Spanish Moss:
And, of course, after they don’t provide you a text box — not even if you click the “Other” option, they say “Thanks for the feedback!”
Fuck you WaPo, fuck Lewis, and fuck Bezos.
ETA: In case it wasn’t obvious: I cancelled my subscription.
eemom
I would love to cancel but can’t, since my 92 year old mom who lives with us half the time needs a paper to read every day, and it’s this or the NY Post.
Back before she lived with us I used to run over it with my tires when backing out of the driveway in the mornings. Good times.
Llelldorin
Cancelled my WaPo subscription as well. I guess I’ll finally forgive the Chron for endorsing Schwarzenegger’s reelection.
Gloria DryGarden
@Elizabelle: yes Amazon owns whole foods.
Mark
Cancelled Amazon Prime today.
Elizabelle
@Mark: Three cheers!!
Elizabelle
@Gloria DryGarden: Thank you.
SomeRandomGuy
@NotMax: Canceling your prime subscription won’t hurt Bezos, either. He’s no longer part of Amazon day to day operations, and one of Amazon’s biggest profit centers isn’t its retail operations – it’s Amazon Web Services. It’s the biggest cloud provider out there, and runs a huge number of businesses – you can’t hurt Bezos by swearing you won’t buy as much stuff from Amazon, or, won’t accept free two day delivery.
So: don’t worry if you can’t cancel Prime, or can’t afford to.
Msb
@John S.:
that’s nice, but not her argument, which was about the difference in (1) the nature of the 2 parties and (2) their reach. Dismissing an argument by failing to tackle it is ineffective.
rumpole
@Baud:
All true, but do you think the post would now publish its Watergate series? I am truly puzzled by the fact that the rule of law enabled the acquisition of each of these men’s dragon hoards, and in each case they decide that they’d be better off without it. Within a year, some of them will start falling out of windows. Perhaps this is what Bezos intuits, and the decision’s not irrational: if this guy wins, he needs to watch his back.
In addition, this is a crisis for the news business. The intimidation tactics are already working. I hope some billionaire gives pro publica about 500 million so that they can run their operation off of the interest. It’s not a long trip to Pravda.
Final note: on Jan 21, send Merrick Garland packing. I’ve seen names floated. Two words: sally yates.