The Post newsroom said be in turmoil. Ann Telnaes, the Post’s chief cartoonist, said: A terrible accusation was made The Post’s slogan is “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” The cartoon was a black rectangle, only inky brush strokes visible. There are both papers lost subscribers following confirmation debates.

Former Washington Post editor-in-chief Marty Baron, who worked for Bezos during the first Trump administration (and was previously editor-in-chief of the Globe) He took to social media to criticize the newspaper’s decisionhe calls it “cowardice whose loss is democracy.” Baron, who is also a former editor of the Boston Globe, told Globe media reporter Aidan Ryan: “The pillars of democracy, especially media institutions, we have to defend what is right.”

Former New York Times editor-in-chief Jill Abramson, who now teaches at Northeastern University, called the decision “cowardly and cowardly.” In an opinion piece for the Globe. “This is the most important mission of journalism: to hold power accountable and give people the information they need to make important decisions,” he wrote. “Voting for president certainly qualifies as one of those decisions.”

And former Globe editor Brian McGrory, now chairman of Boston University’s journalism department, wrote: Post should change its slogan From “Democracy dies in darkness” to “Reputations are ruined in silence.”

New York Times – Times It has an inside view Information about how the Post decision came about began in late September, when the paper’s top reporters and opinion leaders received the first hint that Bezos was cool to the idea of ​​a presidential endorsement. The message came during a working visit to Bezos’s spacious home on a select island in Biscayne Bay. During a discussion in the newspaper’s opinion section, it became clear that Bezos had reservations about supporting the idea. But the editors thought he was persuadable.

NPR – Media reporter David Folkenflik says disapproval decisions raise news organizations’ fears: “Preemptively self-censoring coverageThis might bother former president Donald Trump. Ben Smith, editor-in-chief of news site Semaphore, told Folkenflik that the newspaper owners reached a compromise to avoid antagonizing and retaliating against Trump if he were elected — especially if they had business dealings with Trump. The federal government, as Bezos does.

Trusted Sources newsletter, CNN – in it Media release for CNNBrian Stelter points out that newspaper endorsements do not make a significant difference in the outcomes of political races. But when a decision to disapprove a candidate is made to appease one, that’s a problem. He also spoke of “prior obedience” to the situation in which people “sometimes try to protect themselves by giving up power and currying favor with those aspiring to authoritarianism.”

“MediaBuzz”, Fox News – on it media criticism showHoward Kurtz of Fox News called the Post’s decision “a profile lacking in courage… complete wimpiness”; because the newspaper regularly told readers what to think in its opinion pages.

Guardian – Guardian US columnist Margaret Sullivan, who writes on media, politics and culture, described these decisions as “An appalling display of cowardice and dereliction of public duty by two newspapers.” Sullivan was previously a media columnist for the Post and had some harsh words for his former employer: “This is not a moment to stand on the sidelines, shrug, and act reticent and self-serving.”

Columbia Journalism Review – CJR executive editor Sewell Chan was the LA Times’ editorial page editor in 2020 and 2021 and chaired their 2020 endorsement of Joe Biden. He expressed his respect for Soon-Shiong as a “thoughtful and honest person” who saved the newspaper from the “enemy”. doomed and recently bankrupt Tribune Company,” Chan noted. Owning a newspaper carries a great public responsibility. “In my view, media owners should hire leaders they trust and then let them implement their own decisions,” he wrote. “If the purpose here had been to protect the Times from accusations of political bias, this intervention appears to have had the opposite effect.”

NOTE: The Boston Globe editorial board, which is independent of the Globe newsroom, Endorsed Kamala Harris earlier this month.

Diamond Naga Siu can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @diamondnagasiu and Instagram @diamondnagasiu.