Former Washington Post editor Robert Kagan who resigned Friday after Washington Post’s choice to not again Harris regardless of deliberate endorsement, claimed that Jeff Bezos, the paper’s billionaire proprietor, struck a secret “quid-pro-quo” cope with former President Donald Trump. The choice follows one other main newspaper, The LA Times, blocking help for Kamala Harris, which sparked mega controversy among the many workers, resulting in a number of resignations.
Robert Kagan accuses Jeff Bezos of colluding with Trump
Kagan claims Bezos, proprietor of the Post and Amazon, allegedly put the brakes on a deliberate endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris to remain on potential President of America, Donald Trump’s good facet.
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Earlier, there have been rumours in regards to the paper’s divided viewpoints as election day approaches with the possibilities of both candidate successful or shedding on a razor-thin margin.
Speaking to the Daily Beast, Kagan talked about a gathering between Trump and executives from Blue Origin, Bezos’s house enterprise, that resulted within the bombshell choice of WaPo changing into the second-largest newspaper to not endorse a candidate this 12 months—a transfer that acquired backlash from each readers and journalists alike, calling the act “cowardice.”
The Post’s choice triggered 2,000 subscription cancellations in simply 24 hours, with one workers member calling it “a surprisingly excessive quantity,” based on The NY Post.
Both Bezos and Trump have but to deal with these allegations, which Kagan warns level to a troubling way forward for media censorship. “Trump waited to be sure that Bezos did what he mentioned he was going to do, after which met with the Blue Origin individuals,” the editor-at-large mentioned.
Kagan, a pointy critic of Trump, went additional to say that “there was an precise deal made, which means that Bezos communicated, or by his individuals, communicated instantly with Trump, and so they arrange this quid professional quo.” He added that the alleged collusion between the duo had “been within the works for a while.”
Editor claims he ‘blocked’ endorsement, not Bezos
Amid criticism and claims from workers, Washington Post CEO William Lewis, who beforehand introduced the paper would not endorse presidential candidates, now asserts that he personally blocked the endorsement choice, not Jeff Bezos. “Reporting across the function of The Washington Post proprietor and the choice to not publish a presidential endorsement has been inaccurate,” Lewis clarified in an announcement to The Daily Beast.
“He was not despatched, didn’t learn, and didn’t opine on any draft,” he mentioned based on the outlet. “As Publisher, I don’t imagine in presidential endorsements. We are an impartial newspaper and will help our readers’ skill to make up their very own minds.”
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“I didn’t signal as much as be a journalist to be silent on what issues most. I didn’t come right here to be a coward. Some of us actually, really imagine in talking fact to energy. We have been betrayed right this moment,” wrote WaPo columnist Karen Attiah on X after resigning from her place. This adopted claims that staffers have been awaiting approval from Lewis and Bezos to greenlight the deliberate Harris endorsement, which was finally scrapped.