Jeff Bezos speaks on WaPo drama: We have to ‘increase our credibility’

Jeff Bezos said presidential endorsements by newspapers create a perception of bias.

Jeff Bezos defended The Washington Post’s decision not to endorse a presidential candidate in a column published in his own newspaper Monday, saying it would create the perception of bias in an age when people don’t trust the news media.

Bezos, who has owned the Post since 2013, wrote the op-ed after a series of resignations from the editorial board and a reported wave of cancellations after the paper halted a plan to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.

The Post earlier reported that Bezos made the decision to not publish an endorsement. On Monday, Bezos didn’t say when the decision was made but acknowledged the firestorm surrounding it.

“I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it,” Bezos said. “That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.”

The decision also wasn’t a “quid pro quo” to curry favor with Donald Trump, Bezos said. He said the CEO of his space exploration company, Blue Origin, coincidentally met with Trump on the day of the announcement.

“I sighed when I found out, because I knew it would provide ammunition to those who would like to frame this as anything other than a principled decision,” Bezos wrote.

The decision comes amid what Bezos said was the public’s declining trust in the news media. He cited recent Gallup polling that showed record low numbers of people trust the media.

Bezos said newspapers needed to be accurate — but also must be believed to be accurate. “We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility,” he said.

Besides, Bezos said, a newspaper’s presidential endorsement wouldn’t mean much.

“No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias,” he said. “A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”

His op-ed comes after the paper faced staff resignations and after NPR reported Monday that more than 200,000 people canceled their subscriptions to the Post, citing two people familiar with the matter. That’s around 8% of its 2.5 million subscribers.

On Friday, the newspaper’s publisher, Will Lewis, initially announced the Post’s decision. It came after the Los Angeles Times said it also would decline to endorse a candidate in the presidential election this year.

The Post didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from B-17.