Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon and owner of The Washington Post, broke his silence late Monday in the face of an intensifying controversy over the outlet’s decision not to endorse a candidate in this year’s presidential election.
In an op-ed published in the Post, Bezos pushed back on suggestions that the decision, which he confirmed he personally ordered, was not made with his business interests in mind but was needed to uphold the Post’s reputation at a time when trust in media is eroding.
“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,” Bezos wrote. “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.”
The billionaire tech and media titan acknowledged reports that Dave Limp, the chief executive of one of his companies, Blue Origin, met with former President Trump the same day the Post announced it would not be endorsing a candidate last week.
“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.
Bezos said when it comes to the appearance of a conflict of interest between the Post’s coverage and his business endeavors and vast wealth, “I am not an ideal owner of The Post.”
“Every day, somewhere, some Amazon executive or Blue Origin executive or someone from the other philanthropies and companies I own or invest in is meeting with government officials,” he wrote. “I once wrote that The Post is a ‘complexifier’ for me. It is, but it turns out I’m also a complexifier for The Post.”
Bezos’s edict to not run an endorsement of either Vice President Harris or Trump reportedly came after the Post’s editorial board had drafted and was ready to publish an editorial backing Harris.
“Lack of credibility isn’t unique to The Post. Our brethren newspapers have the same issue. And it’s a problem not only for media, but also for the nation,” the newspaper’s owner wrote.
The decision not to endorse a candidate has sparked vocal protest from inside the Post newsroom, resignations by members of its editorial board and a reported loss of more than 200,000 digital subscribers in four days.
But Bezos said he does not regret breaking with more than three decades of tradition at one of the nation’s leading newspapers.
“To win this fight, we will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and some will be new inventions,” he wrote. “Criticism will be part and parcel of anything new, of course. This is the way of the world. None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it.”
