One of the few family-owned and operated metro papers in the country, the Seattle Times, enthusiastically endorsed VP Kamala Harris, and questioned the billionaire-owned paper’s reluctance to endorse her.
“As one of the very few family-owned and operated metro newspapers in the country, The Seattle Times is also one of the few editorial boards willing to endorse a presidential candidate,” he wrote in the Opinion section.
“This is incomprehensible, as another candidate for leadership clearly threatens the foundations of America’s 248-year-old democracy and the rule of law.”
He asked the question on most Americans’ minds: What about Donald Trump even in a position to destroy the country after “he fanned the 6 Jan. insurgency, after the crime conviction and after the civil court ruled that he did sexual assault?”
The editorial board of the Seattle Times attributed this to the loss of local newspapers, noting, “Too many others are inferior products killed by paid investors who don’t exist.”
“The decision appears to have been made by the billionaire owners – Jeff Bezos of The Washington Post and Patrick Soon-Shiong of the Los Angeles Times. That led to protests and resignations in both papers. The reason they gave was about political division, wanting to let voters make up their own minds itself and restore public trust, according to the Columbia Journalism Review,” wrote the Seattle Times.
A pause here while we wonder why The billionaire owner of the Washington Post Jeff Bezos found it difficult to allow the worthless paper he bought for endorsements in the presidential race, especially as the paper approved down the ticket race.
The South African billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Times, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, also refused to allow the endorsement of VP Harris to open, claiming that he was trying to reduce the sharp division in the election.
Does this billionaire think that a presidential candidate threatening to use the military against American citizens for disagreeing with him is “perception bias” as Bezos casually writes, or “divisive,” as Soon-Shiong claims? If we believe this statement, a very protected worldview makes a strong argument that millionaires should be banned from owning legitimate newspapers intended to inform ordinary people about how policies and people can affect their lives.
The problem was obvious even to his own staff. The Los Angeles Times staff writer can publish this, “The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post have seen significant subscription cancellations in recent days since their billionaire owners decided not to endorse in the presidential race after the editorial boards at both newspapers nominated Vice President Kamala Harris.”
The Seattle Times has nothing.
“At The Times, we have a wall between the newsroom and the editorial board. Editorial writers don’t ask the news staff for their opinions, and they don’t participate in the coverage. We do our own reporting.”
“Trump has become shameless when he talks about his plans and charges against many Americans. He can only bring the country back and put our country at risk.
The Seattle Times endorsement is what you should expect from any paper you subscribe to. Newspapers should not obey first. They are supposed to speak truth to power.
However, other papers also did not approve, such as the Gannett chain, USA Today, and the conservative Detroit News, which claimed that they could not, because there was no worthy candidate. So the Detroit News thinks that the person accused of instigating the uprising that killed the United States is the same as the former prosecutor and current Vice President with zero scandals in his history, except for being a black woman, which is obviously a big deal. problem for some people, which makes them unable to see him clearly and so they flounder about calling him Socialist and Marxist based on Facebook claims debunked. That, of course, is not something a legitimate paper will fall for, but the Detroit News remains fidget.
While small outlets like the Seattle Times (and we at PoliticusUSA) can fight autocracy with fewer resources than these billionaires, it’s impossible to ignore the threat. of oligarchy enables fascism out of self-interest, as we saw in Russia.
What greed, what passion, what cowardice we witness.
But there are papers like the Seattle Times, which are willing to take a stand. And there are many people in this country who are taking a stand. Do not lose heart; instead, let these people and institutions show themselves unworthy of your support, strengthen your own determination to leave everything in the field. We deserve better than this.
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Sarah has been trusted to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi several times and exclusively covered the first home appearance after the first impeachment of President Donald Trump.
Sarah is a two-time Telly award-winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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