Democracy might die in darkness, but apparently it also dies when your boss wants to kill it. For the first time in decades, the Washington Post won’t be endorsing a candidate for president. Why? Post owner Jeff Bezos won’t let the paper endorse Kamala Harris. This has set off a firestorm of criticism, and has a the hashtag #BoycottAmazon blowing up.
Newspaper journalism has been pretty much hanging on by a thread since the advent of the internet, but in 2013 there was a glimmer of hope when billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the paper for around $250 million. Free speech advocates were cautious about the purchase though, worried that Bezos might interfere with editorial decisions. Looks like that caution was well founded.
The Post published an article on Oct. 25 saying that an endorsement of Harris was drafted but that, “The decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.” The Post has endorsed a candidate every election since 1976, except in 1988. The paper endorsed a Democrat in every election since then.
People are understandably upset. One X user claims that Bezos only cares about his investment portfolio and couldn’t care less about democracy itself, even is that means electing a “crazy autocrat.”
Others are taking the opportunity to ask people to support local business and cancel their Amazon subscription. Someone else made a nifty, shareable graphic.
X user @TraceyAnne6288 says people need to stop being so comfortable and actually boycott the online retail giant. If not, then you let a billionaire dismantle the country just for the sake of his pocketbook. Wake the f up, she said.
Of course, no hashtag movement would be complete without skepticism. This is where Jim from The Office makes his appearance.
Will it last? Will the boycott matter? Some people seem to think that when the reality of shipping prices hit them in the face, they’re going to have a change of heart.
Journalist Seth Abramson is using the moment as a call to arms to his fellow reporters. This event, he said to his journalist peers, is the very reason you got into this racket in the first place. The Post is bending the knee to fascism and completely leaving America up the flagpole, he said. Like 9/11, he said he will never forget this day.
Just how much of Amazon does Bezos own? Will a boycott actually affect him? Per a recent SEC filing, Bezos owns around 8.84% of Amazon stock. That’s a lot, but he used to own almost 50%. He’s sold a lot over the years to fund other ventures, including the space flight SpaceX competitor Blue Origin.
It’s also been well documented that when Donald Trump first ran for president, he threatened the Post over “getting calls from reporters from the Washington Post asking ridiculous questions,” and said Bezos was using the paper for “power.”
In 2019, Amazon was the designated contractor for $10 billion computing contract from the Pentagon, but Trump directed Defense Secretary James Mattis to “screw Amazon,” which, ironically, is what people are also trying to do to the company now with the boycott.
Money and power talk in this world, and those men have both. It doesn’t look like Bezos thinks it’s worth the fallout from Trump, and decided that the fallout from customers is a safer bet in the long run. Realistically, probably nothing will change, except some people are going to be paying more to ship things.