Amazon founder and proprietor of The Washington Put up, Jeff Bezos, mentioned he is probably not the perfect proprietor for the paper from the attitude of “the looks” of battle of curiosity, however he defended the paper’s controversial choice to not endorse a presidential candidate for the primary time in years forward of final month’s election, however not that far forward.
Some referred to as it cowardice to keep away from offending Donald Trump given the billionaire’s numerous enterprise pursuits. Bezos insisted it was “removed from cowardly as a result of we knew there can be blowback and we did the precise factor anyway.” The publication misplaced many 1000’s of subscribers. “You possibly can’t do the incorrect factor since you are frightened about unhealthy PR, or no matter it’s you wish to name it. This was the precise choice. We made. the precise choice. I’m very pleased with the choice,” he advised the New York Instances DealBook Summit in NYC.
“The pluses of doing this had been very small and [endorsements] added to the perceptions of bias if information media are going to attempt to be goal and impartial,” he mentioned, including that media “is affected by a disaster of belief.” It ought to behave like a “voting machine. They should rely the votes precisely and other people should imagine that they rely the votes precisely.”
“Not all of it’s the media’s fault. However the place we are able to do one thing we must always … We made this choice. I’m pleased with this choice.”
Nonetheless, he acknowledged, “I’m a horrible proprietor for the Put up from the standpoint of the looks of battle … Most likely not a single day goes by the place some Amazon govt or Blue Origin govt or some Bezos Earth Fund chief isn’t assembly with a authorities official someplace. And so there are at all times going to be appearances of battle.”
“A pure newspaper proprietor who solely owned a newspaper and did nothing else would most likely be, from that standpoint, a significantly better proprietor,” he mentioned. “Now, the benefit I convey to the Put up is once they want monetary assets I’m obtainable. I’m the doting mother or father in that regard.”
He mentioned the Put up will proceed to cowl “all presidents very aggressively.”
