LA Times, tied to Elon Musk, won't endorse a presidential candidate

Update: As of Monday, Oct 28, 8% of subscribers — about 200,000 — had canceled their Washington Post subscription.

Post editorial board members step down in wake of endorsement decision www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/...

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— Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis.bsky.social) October 28, 2024 at 4:02 PM

Previously

Mariel Garza, editorials editor at The Los Angeles Times, has resigned after the paper’s billionaire owner intervened to prevent the paper from publishing an presidential endorsement

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— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) October 23, 2024 at 4:28 PM

👀

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) October 23, 2024 at 7:47 PM

Compare the headline to what’s actually in the story by the end… Dr. Soon-Shiong “…had boasted of having dinner with Mr. Trump after he won the presidency in 2016 and often has approvals pending with the federal Food and Drug Administration.”

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— Matt Novak (@paleofuture.bsky.social) October 26, 2024 at 2:19 PM

ffffffuck this guy www.cjr.org/business_of_...

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) October 23, 2024 at 5:01 PM

Oh, look, now the Washington Post won't either.

"The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos." I worked at the paper for seven years and Bezos never interfered with a thing. This is five-alarm fire stuff. www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/...

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— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 12:46 PM

Once the LA Times broke the surface tension, this is cascading.

— Brian Skinner (@thebrianskinner.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 12:52 PM

Yep, said this earlier. A permission structure has been created

— Ulf (@adambstrassberg.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 12:59 PM

Washington Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan told @maxtani.bsky.social that he has resigned from the newspaper over its decision not to endorse a presidential candidate

— Phil Lewis (@phillewis.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 1:05 PM

“Alleged collusion between Bezos and Trump, ‘is just the beginning’ and if the former president wins a second term, there will be ‘a lot of self censorship [in the media] and a lot of changing course just to be sure they’re not going to be punished.’” media beholden to billionaires will not last.

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) October 26, 2024 at 7:56 PM

from friends in WaPo newsroom, they lost enough subscriptions yday for it to be immediately noticeable and discussed and have an impact on a visibly panicky management.

— BeijingPalmer (@beijingpalmer.bsky.social) October 26, 2024 at 12:49 PM

Take note of the absences, and never forget who or what they are. bsky.app/profile/mari...

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— Adam Serwer (@adamserwer.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 6:51 PM

more have added their names since it was first published

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— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 7:10 PM

Billionaire Newspaper Owners Crush Editorial Endorsements, Dave Levitan, Splinter, October 25, 2024

The Washington Post opinion editor approved a Harris endorsement. A week later, Jeff Bezos killed it. By Sewell Chan, Columbia Journalism Review, October 25, 2024

NPR:

Some questions about the timing www.cjr.org/political_pr...

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— Sarah Posner (@sarahposner.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 1:46 PM

Does it matter?

People are going to spin this as "I can't believe you rubes think the WaPo endorsement would have moved any votes" but it's not about the poll results, it's about elite institutions doing the bare minimum to stave off authoritarianism.

— Michael Hobbes (@michaelhobbes.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 1:42 PM

i think what’s so scary about the owners of major media outlets exerting control over presidential endorsements is that we’re seeing the wrath of billionaire control materializing in a fully tangible way

— Marisa Kabas (@marisakabas.bsky.social) October 24, 2024 at 9:55 PM

At the very least, if you decide to cancel your WaPo and/or LA Times subscriptions, please I am begging you to transfer that money to other publications that you feel deserve the support. Don’t just remove it completely from all journalism. If we want a free press we have to invest in it.

— Erin Biba (@erinbiba.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 1:57 PM

The Washington Post and LA Times refused to endorse a candidate. Why? There’s no way to see this decision other than as an appalling display of cowardice and a dereliction of their public duty. Margaret Sullivan, Guardian, 25 Oct 2024

"I’ve worked at two newspapers owned by billionaires. Warren Buffett owned The Buffalo News, my hometown daily where I began as a summer intern in 1980 and became the paper’s first woman editor in chief in 1999. To his credit, Buffett never interfered in the editorial policy of the paper; he certainly never killed an editorial, as billionaire owners did this week at the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post."
— Margaret Sullivan, We needed courage. We got cowardice. My thoughts on billionaires who own newspapers and betray the public interest. Substack, Oct 26, 2024

Feel bad for angry WaPost & LA Times readers here. With billionare owners, it's damned if you do and don't. Even the wealthy moguls & conglomerates running our dying industry only succeed in postponing, but not halting, mass layoffs and shutdowns. Sadly, expect more disappontment to come your way.

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— Zecharias Zelalem (@zekuzelalem.bsky.social) October 26, 2024 at 2:53 AM

Just want to remind folks that at the eve of a potential authoritarian regime, a host of universities pledged to give up their voice of moral authority in the name of “institutional neutrality”

— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 7:58 PM

Just to underline the moral cowardice of “independence” - this is the value the Post editor invoked to justify not opposing an authoritarian l www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...

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— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn.bsky.social) October 25, 2024 at 8:34 PM

Billionaires and Big Tech CEOs are making a mistake cozying up to Trump. I wrote about why: www.platformer.news/tech-ceos-tr...

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— Casey Newton (@caseynewton.bsky.social) October 28, 2024 at 7:32 PM

This is, unfortunately, real — Danielle Allen of Harvard, who has thought a lot about ethics and democracy

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— Amanda Katz (@katzish.bsky.social) October 28, 2024 at 6:52 PM

The Seattle Times has no fucks left to give. “As one of the country’s very few family-owned and -operated metro newspapers left, The Seattle Times is also apparently one of the few whose editorial board is willing to endorse presidential candidates.” www.seattletimes.com/opinion/hell...

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— Laura Anne Gilman (@lauraannegilman.bsky.social) October 29, 2024 at 6:57 PM

Of course:
Donald Trump weaponizes non-endorsements from The Washington Post and Los Angeles Times, Hadas Gold, CNN, October 30, 2024