Mike's Minute: Should newspapers be endorsing candidates?

It's kind of odd that it took Jeff Bezos to explain what I would have thought was the bleeding obvious.

There is a 'to do' in the US election among the elites over a couple of newspapers not endorsing a candidate.

This is an American thing – we don’t do it here and we are wise not to.

It started with the LA Times, who decided no endorsement would be made. This led to one of the editorial board quitting and a lot of whining.

Then came the Washington Post, which is the paper Bezos owns. The editor said it was their call not to endorse a candidate, this was disputed and several board members walked, and allegedly a couple of hundred thousand subscribers quit the paper.

Enter Bezos, who wrote a couple of self-explanatory things.

Firstly, he wished the no-endorsement move had come earlier, not in the heat of the battle.

He then pointed out, quite correctly, not a single undecided voter ever, anywhere, had their mind made up by a newspaper.

Then most importantly of all he suggested, once again quite correctly, that the media is not trusted by the American public and wandering around pretending to be neutral while endorsing people is not going to help their reputation.

Not surprisingly both papers were going to endorse Kamala Harris and whether from a point of view of true balance or not, a media already seen to be hopelessly left-leaning and in the Democrat's pocket was not going to tilt the balance their way by further enhancing their reputation as anti-Trump.

The endorsement business comes from a different age. An age when papers actually mattered.

Some still do, but not many, and as the media is diluted it matters less and less.

The problem with this problem is those in the middle of it still clearly suffer from another of the age-old problems of the media – too many take themselves too seriously.

I bet many of them actually believe that people don’t make up their mind until they are told to. Many of them will think an endorsement swings the race or moves the needle.

Many of them will think that Bezos, as owner, really doesn’t get to make the calls. Guess what? He does.

The upside might just be a tired, old habit of an endorsement by paper might just have died in the race of 2024.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It kind of odd. I thought that it took Jeff
Bezos to explain what I would have thought was the
bleeding obvious. So there is, as if you were listening
to Richard Arnold earlier, a to do in the US
election among the elites over a couple of newspapers not
endorsing a candidate. Now this is a very American thing.
We don't do it here, Thank god, we're very wise
not to. It started with the Los Angeles Times, who
decided no endorsement would be made. This led to one

(00:22):
of the editorial board quitting and a lot of whining.
Then came the Washington Post, this is the paper Bezos owns.
The editor said it was their call not to endorse.
This was disputed, several board members walked in, allegedly a
couple of one hundred thousand subscribers as of yesterday quit
the paper. And to Bezos, who wrote a couple of
self explanatory things. Firstly, he wished that no endorsement move
had come earlier, not in the heat of the battle.

(00:43):
He then pointed out, quite correctly, not a single undecided
voter ever anywhere had their mind made up by a newspaper.
And then most importantly of all, he suggested, once again
quite correctly, the media is not trusted by the American public.
In wandering around pretending to be neutral while endorsing peer
people is not going to help their reputation. Not surprisingly,

(01:03):
both papers were going to endorse Harris, of course, and
whether from a point of view of true balance or not,
a media already seemed to be hopelessly left leaning and
in the Democrats pocket, was not going to tilt the
balance their way by further enhancing the reputation as anti Trump.
The endorsement business comes, of course from a different age,
an age when paper is actually matted. Some still do,
but not many, and as the media is diluted, it

(01:25):
matters less and less. The problem with the problem, of course,
is those in the middle of it still clearly suffer
from another age old problem of the media. Too many
take themselves too seriously. I bet many of them actually
believe that people don't make up their mind until they're
told to. Many of them will think an endorsement swings
the race or moves the needle. Many of them will

(01:48):
think that Abezos as owner really doesn't get to make
the calls when guess what he does the upside might
just be that a tired old habit ie endorsement by
news paper might just have died in the race of
twenty four. For more from the mic Asking Breakfast listen
live to News Talks it B from six am weekdays,

(02:10):
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