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WITH OPINION POLLS predicting a close result in the US presidential election, two major American newspapers have opted not to publish an endorsement for either candidate.
The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post have taken the decision to break with tradition and declined to come out in favour of Donald Trump or Kamala Harris ahead of the election.
“We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” wrote the Post’s publisher William Lewis, who said this would remain the case into the future.
Friday’s announcement, made just two weeks before the election on 5 November, drew a pointed retort from the Post’s former top editor Marty Baron, who suggested his old newspaper was giving in to intimidation from Trump.
“This is cowardice,” Baron said on X, “with democracy as its casualty.”
In a letter published in the Post yesterday, the paper’s owner Jeff Bezos explained the thinking behind the decision, saying that public trust in the media has declined and that endorsements contribute to the image of news outlets being biased.
“We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased,” the Amazon founder wrote.
“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. 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. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”
The Post’s announcement that it would not be endorsing a candidate came on the same day that the head of Blue Origin – one of Bezos’ companies – met with Trump.
In his letter, Bezos said he was unaware of the meeting.
“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. But the fact is, I didn’t know about the meeting beforehand,” he said.
The Post’s decision has had a significant impact on readership, according to the newspaper’s own reporting, although it has not released figures on the number of cancellations.
Yesterday, US media outlet NPR carried a report, citing two unnamed sources, that the Post had lost 200,000 digital subscribers since the announcement, representing 8% of its total.
Readers have expressed their anger and disappointment in letters to the paper’s editor.
One reader from Philadelphia, Michele Kilpatrick, said she hoped the decision was “remembered with shame, as an example of what it looks like for an institution to fail to live up to its stated principles when it matters most”.
With reporting from AFP
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Ffg and thier election bull has no ends
There is no end to what this government will do to try win votes. I hope people can see through this and vote these guys out for ever. These guys can only have their own greedy interests at hand. Remember the little kids in hospital with terrible pain from scoliosis and the money that was squandered on the bike shed and the RTE bail out and the most expensive hospital in the world that facilitated a developer to have an ever ending cash cow from this government. It’s a pity we don’t have laws like they have in America where these crooks would be in jail.
FF FG GP Bribery and Corruption Specialists .
@Jim Ryan:
Bribe away if it puts money in the people’s pockets
PS
IRELAND 15th on the list of LEAST corrupt counties in the world.
@H Woo: 193 countries in UN
Micheal Martin, trying to bankrupt the country a second time. It’s the fiannna fail way.
@Michael o connor: ffg one party, one agenda.
@Colette Byrne:
Sin. Fein, the one trick pony party.
Again, not targeted. Oh we do love giving away money, esp when it’s not theirs to give away. People need to wake up.
It’s a few years since we protested at Shannon Airport !!!!!!!
Cue, the schools will exploit an opportunity to introduce a new voluntary charge, just wait!
More bribery, more freebies, more welfare handouts, more Hamas appeasement, more anti-West nonsense, more wacky environmental policies, more disrespecting of America, does this government have no end to their terrible policies? Is Simon Harris allergic to supporting any sort of policy that isn’t left-wing? This current government has been nothing more than a Statist leach, mooching off the taxpayer and their money. At some point, the people of Ireland will wake up and realise that they are being screwed over, but it looks like they are blinded once again and continue to stab themselves and their wallets in the chest. Harris and Varadkar are up there with Jack Lynch and Garret Fitzgerald as the person who was the worst Taoiseach in our nation’s history.
@Frank O’Hara:
That’s it, get it all up, yill be grand.
@H Woo: You haven’t offered any sort of coherent rebuttal to what I said. Is that because you know that I’m right?
Recognising Palestine is so hypocritical when aeroplanes carrying war equipment flies over Irish airspace and Shannon is used as a stopover.
Fantastic news well done government
I see the Sinn Fein (kangaroo cult) bots are creeping back out
@John Nolan: You must have great eyesight to see them in the herds of pro FG & Trump bots …. Weird you haven’t noticed them !! FG supporting Trump bots man.. Like they do stand out, considering FG has always tried to liken SF and their supporters to Trump and his supporters in an attempt to smear them.. but now it’s a good thing when FG bots are supporting Trump bots ..
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