Throughout our history, America’s seen super rich men take control of newspapers, purportedly to inform the public, but end up using them to pursue their own selfish, conservative political agendas. Think Colonel Robert McCormick of the Chicago Tribune, William Randolph Hearst of Hearst Communications and Rupert Murdoch of Fox News.
Now add two more: Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, and Jeff Bezos, owner of the Washington Post. Back to back this week, the billionaires announced they were banning their newspapers from making any endorsement in the 2024 presidential election.
Soon-Shiong and Bezos defended their decisions by saying they just wanted to return to the papers’ original policy of no presidential endorsements. Which is so pathetic an excuse few believe it.
Three factors make this cowardly retreat stink to high heaven. First, the built-in contradiction. The fact is both papers........