The Power You Give Away
Appeasement will not save you.
I thought I was done writing newsletters today (go read my thoughts on Conclave! I also wrote about The Remarkable Life of Ibelin!), but I’m so annoyed at The Washington Post right now I figured I had to share something because this is a media story.
For the first time in 34 years, The Washington Post, the outlet that published the Pentagon Papers and recently changed its motto to “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” will decline to endorse a candidate for President.
At first blush, this seems irrelevant. In 2024, newspaper endorsements don’t move votes. Hillary Clinton picked up just about every major newspaper endorsement in 2016, and Trump still won. What does it matter The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times refuse to say who their editorial boards support?
The refusal to take a stance is a sign of larger cowardice in these operations, and they tell you that those calling the shots will, even when democracy is on the line, give it up to better their position relative to a second Trump Administration. The calculus goes like this:
If you support Harris and Trump wins, Trump will get mad and use the government to come after the paper and the other business interests of the billionaire owners of The Washington Post and The L.A. Times (Jeff Bezos and Patrick Soon-Shiong, respectively). If you support Trump, you have to say why, and that’s going to take you down some paths that may not be too palatable to advertisers. If you support neither and Harris wins, a Harris Administration likely won’t retaliate (nor should they), and if Trump wins, the billionaire owners of the Washington Post and the L.A. Times can argue that they want to start fresh and hey, if you could approve these government contracts and lower my taxes, that would be swell.
Setting aside the short-term optics as well as still failing to understand one of the most easily grokked doofuses of the 21st century, the absence of a statement is, in itself, a statement. What these owners and publishers are telling readers is that they view short-term business interests as the most important element of their work, not a commitment to journalism or democracy. And at that point, there’s no more reason to subscribe. Every piece of reporting from here on out is immediately colored by, “Who are they trying to cozy up to right now?” We’ve seen glimpses of this already when the Post declined to report on Samuel Alito and his wife sending up flags that demonstrate they’re full-on-MAGA chuds, but to not even “risk” an endorsement when the stakes are so clear demonstrates that the political reporting, regardless of who wins, will only get worse.
A publication has to serve its readers, even if that means incurring the wrath of powerful entities. Once it cedes that ground, there’s no purpose left. You’re just wasting money on ink and paper.