Opinion | Billionaires don’t belong in newsrooms

On Friday, Oct. 25, The Washington Post editorial board announced that for the first time since 1988, it would not endorse a presidential candidate — but not by choice. The board had already written up a proposed editorial endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris when the decision was handed down from the Post’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos.

In an opinion published in the Post the following Monday, Bezos established his personal justifications for the decision. He compared the news media to voting booths, arguing that both must be accurate and believed by most to be accurate. The public no longer believes the news media to be accurate, he argued, and presidential endorsements only heighten perceptions of bias within a press organization. He called his down-to-the-wire cancellation a “principled decision” intended to boost the Post’s credibility.

That all sounds well-reasoned — as long as you’re ignoring the billions of dollars in contracts Bezos currently holds with the federal government.

Bezos is the sole shareholder of his aerospace engineering company Blue Origin, which he founded in 2000. The company has worked closely with NASA for funding in the decades since. While limited information is publicly available, it is known that Blue Origin began working with NASA in 2010 when it received funding to develop the Commercial Crew Program, a human transportation service to and from the International Space Station.

Most recently in 2023, NASA awarded Blue Origin $3.4 billion to begin work on a human landing system for Artemis V, a mission to the Moon planned for 2029. NASA had previously contracted SpaceX — owned by billionaire Elon Musk — to develop similar systems for Artemis III in 2021, driving the two firms into fierce competition for funding in further projects.

This recently established competition is a likely motivator behind Bezos’ attitudes toward tying himself to a Harris endorsement. Musk is a notable Trump fanatic. He’s spent the past several weeks campaigning for him at rallies and spending millions in giveaways to voters who show their support. Musk is safely on Trump’s good side, and if elected, it’s nearly assured that Trump would pull strings for SpaceX to secure the contracts it is vying for.

Bezos can’t currently say the same. Since his 2013 purchase of the Post, he has allowed two Democratic presidential endorsements for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and President Joe Biden in 2020 — both of which were endorsements against Trump. 

He and the officers of his companies are now attempting to repair their relationships with the GOP candidate in the event that he regains the White House. Just a few hours after the Post’s announcement, Blue Origin CEO David Limp had a personal meeting with Trump after a speech in Texas. The CEO of Bezos’ other major corporation, Amazon, has also been reaching out to Trump personally through “general, hello-type” phone calls. 

It seems Bezos’ nonendorsement is one further attempt to stay off the former president’s bad side. His fear, however, should not serve as an excuse to neglect his responsibilities to the Post.

As much as Bezos denies it, editorial endorsements have meaning. They come directly from the few people in the country who have been paying attention to every rally, policy plan and word out of each candidate’s mouth for the past four years. They are more qualified than anyone I can name to make a fact-based, sound judgment on who is best prepared to serve in the country’s highest seat. Leaders within press organizations, especially those in charge of the country’s largest news outlets, have a distinct responsibility to deliver such a judgment to the public because of their specialized and trusted positions of knowledge.

Bezos is letting his personal finances get in the way of that responsibility, the one he took on when he bought out the Post and became as much a member of the press as his writers and editors are. He’s making his priorities clear. His investments and relationship with the former — and potential next — president come first. His role within the press and the duties attached to it come last.

He said it himself — he’s a “complexifier” of the Post’s functions and interests. This election is too important, the timing is too critical and the polls are too close to maintain such an irresponsible and selfish position.

It seems Jeff Bezos can’t handle the heat. It’s time to get out of the kitchen.

Grace Longworth is TPN’s assistant copy chief with dreams of working for the Washington Post someday — so here’s to hoping Jeff Bezos never reads the online edition of her college paper. You can pray for her reach her at GEL69@pitt.edu.