Thursday, October 24, 2024

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.

Previously

Varys the eunuch, Game of Thrones character

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

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:

Does it matter?

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

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

Musk helped kill a congressional spending bill. But much of what he spread was misinformation, Melissa Goldin, AP, December 21, 2024

In January 2025, the LA Times edited an opinion writer's message [the author on Bluesky] to the point of changing its meaning. Read more: "I wouldn't trust that newspaper": Author accuses Los Angeles Times of "distorting" RFK Jr. critique, Eric Reinhart said the Los Angeles Times changed his piece to make it look like he backs Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Griffin Eckstein, Salon, January 31, 2025

The New Republic published the op-ed as originally intended.

September 2024

Elon Musk deletes post questioning the Trump assassination attempt. David Goldman, CNN, September 16, 2024

Elon Musk is on track to soon become the world’s first trillionaire Matt Egan, CNN, September 17, 2024

After making a comment about assassinating Kamala Harris, Musk talks about it with Carlson: Elon Musk And Tucker Carlson Laugh Over Idea Of Kamala Harris Assassination The X owner also said this would be "the last election" if Trump loses. Ron Dicker, HuffPost, Oct 8, 2024

These two men are making political commentary and manufacturing a laugh track (ha! ha! ha!) for plausible deniability. They care about no one's safety. But leaving aside whether they intend their comments to be funny, Musk, as the richest man on the planet and a close ally of Trump, should be more cautious than most people about comments he makes about Trump's political opponents — and is not.

Also, he's a scammer

The LA Times’ new AI tool sympathized with the KKK. Its owner wasn’t aware until hours later. Liam Reilly, CNN, March 5, 2025

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