The Guardrails Are Already Crumpling – by Jonathan V. Last ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON, the Washington Post announced that it would not be making an endorsement in the presidential race. After that, a number of things happened very quickly. First, the paper’s former executive editor Marty Baron called the decision “cowardice.” Second, at least one senior Post opinion writer resigned. Third, it was leaked that the editor of the editorial page had already drafted the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris when publisher Will Lewis—who is a new hire, hailing from the Rupert Murdoch journalism tree—quashed it and then released a CYA statement about how the paper was “returning to its roots” of not endorsing candidates. The Post itself reported that the decision was made by the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Everything about this story feels like a tempest in a teapot, a boiling story about legacy media fretting over itself in the mirror. It’s not. It’s a situation analogous to what we saw in Russia in the early 2000s: We are witnessing the surrender of the American business community to Donald Trump. No one cares about the Washington Post’s presidential endorsement. It will not move a single vote. The only people who care about newspaper editorial page endorsements are newspaper editorial writers. No one really cares all that much about the future of the Washington Post, either. I mean, I care about it, because I care about journalism and I respect the institution. But this isn’t a journalism story.… Read more »
New York Times Editorial: Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.
As a dedicated public servant who has demonstrated care, competence and an unwavering commitment to the Constitution, Ms. Harris stands alone in this race.
We urge Americans to contrast Ms. Harris’s record with her opponent’s.
It is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States than Donald Trump. He has proved himself morally unfit for an office that asks its occupant to put the good of the nation above self-interest. He has proved himself temperamentally unfit for a role that requires the very qualities — wisdom, honesty, empathy, courage, restraint, humility, discipline — that he most lacks.
Those disqualifying characteristics are compounded by everything else that limits his ability to fulfill the duties of the president: his many criminal charges, his advancing age, his fundamental lack of interest in policy and his increasingly bizarre cast of associates.
Ms. Harris is more than a necessary alternative. There is also an optimistic case for elevating her, one that is rooted in her policies and borne out by her experience as vice president, a senator and a state attorney general.
Over the past 10 weeks, Ms. Harris has offered a shared future for all citizens, beyond hate and division. She has begun to describe a set of thoughtful plans to help American families.
kudos to NYT. wonder if/when wapo’s draft endorsing kamala will show up before election. here’s another take from c j review no less: The Washington Post opinion editor approved a Harris endorsement. A week later, Jeff Bezos killed it. – Columbia Journalism Review On Friday, the Washington Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced that the paper would no longer make endorsements for president—after its journalists had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision was made by Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner. Over a period of several weeks, a Post staffer told me, two Post board members, Charles Lane and Stephen W. Stromberg, had worked on drafts of a Harris endorsement. (Neither was contacted for this article.) “Normally we’d have had a meeting, review a draft, make suggestions, do editing,” the staffer told me. Editorial writers started to feel angsty a few weeks ago, per the staffer; the process stalled. Around a week ago, editorial page editor David Shipley told the editorial board that the endorsement was on track, adding that “this is obviously something our owner has an interest in.” “We thought we were dickering over language—not over whether there would be an endorsement,” the Post staffer said. So journalists at the Post, in both the news and opinion departments, were stunned Friday after Shipley told the editorial board at a meeting that it would not take a position after all. This represents the first time the Post has sat out a presidential endorsement since 1988. The… Read more »
American business leaders should take a lesson from Putin’s oligarchs — many who did not stay on bended knee are dead. His oligarchs fell in line and once no longer a source of concern for Putin they became vassals. Which is exactly what Jeff Bezos has just taught Jamie Dimon and every other important American businessman.
From a frighteningly prophetic book, “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder:
“Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.”
In early ballots we’ve NEVER seen a gender gap like this: Votes cast by women 10 points higher than men compared to about 5 points in recent elections.
If Harris wins by a surprising number, this will be why pollsters didn’t see it coming — they modeled turnout on past elections.
9.5 million early votes cast so far in the 7 swing states: 952,866 more women have voted than men, or 55.1-44.9%. Gender turnout gap is +14% points in MI, +13 in PA, +12 in GA, +10 in WI, +9 in NC, +4 in AZ, -2 in NV.
Joy in the morning, a battle cry. LOD gave up his show to show Harris in H-Town.
Lifelong subscribers to WAPO flat-quit yesterday according to various reports. Shame on WAPO. The Times carried the ball over the goal line however.
Harris held a one topic event and only mentioned Colin Allred twice. I had assumed she would have had him onstage. So this was a plea to women all over the swing states, as Texas is solid red.
I am concerned canceling WAPO subscription only hurts honest hard-working journalists working there. Bezos is too rich to feel any impact, even if the whole place shut down.
Bezo doesn’t care whether I read his paper, watch his Prime video, buy from his Amazon or shop at his Whole Foods. At this point, I’m not boycotting. I’m voting.
Those journalists should be RESIGNING from any paper which has shown itself to be a Russian asset.
And regardless of whether Bezos “needs” the paper he doesn’t want a paper which has turned to shit, and also there is no damn reason for anyone to support such a paper.
Sturg… I respectfully disagree with you. I’ve been reading WaPo for years and never once thought of it as a Russian asset. Bob Woodard still works there and I don’t see how anyone can think he’s a Russian asset.
I am glad that many of the journalists there have come out strongly against Bezos decision.
As BiD would remind us… we need to tax the rich. And as PJ O’Rourke would tell us… we need to eat them.
Renee, Mr. Ivy and I met PJ O’Rourke. He came to speak to our group. He hung around long enough for it to be down to just the three of us left in the room. It was so kind and generous even though we were just a couple of dorks waiting to speak to him.
The Full Maureen: Usually, I get political wisdom from Rahm Emanuel, not his brother Ari. But a quote from Ari, the Hollywood macher, to Puck’s Matthew Belloni about the gender chasm in 2024 caught my eye. “This election is gonna come down to probably 120,000 votes,” Ari said. “You probably have 60 percent of the male vote for Trump, and the female vote is 60-40 for Kamala. It’s a jump ball. We’re gonna find out who wants this more — men or women.” Are we back to the days of Mars versus Venus? Or did we never leave? It is the ultimate battle of the sexes in the most visceral of elections. Who will prevail? The women, especially young women, who are appalled at the cartoonish macho posturing and benighted stances of Donald Trump and his entourage? Or the men, including many young men, union men, Latino and Black men, who are drawn to Trump’s swaggering, bullying and insulting, seeing him as the reeling-backward antidote to shrinking male primacy. Drilling into the primal yearnings of men and women — their priorities, identities, anger and frustration — makes this election even more fraught. When I wrote a book about gender in 2005, I assumed that, a couple of decades later, we’d all be living peacefully on the same planet. But no Cassandra, I. The sexual revolution intensified our muddle, leaving women in a tangle of dependence and independence in the 21st century. The more we imitated men, the more we realized how… Read more »
Reb Ren I can dig your point of view.
To me, there is a reason the paper wouldn’t endorse. “Why?” Is the question and it seems to stem from something not plainly evident. To me something is rotten on the Wapo and it smells like an oligarch, a Murdoch and Russia.
Woodward? The one who sat on information to save for his book? Well, anyway he doesn’t need to be working for swine.
Let’s say I’m so freakin rich I can OWN a newspaper like Wapo. And….faced with the choice we have here, when the Editorial staff of MY paper writes up a long and deadly serious opinion of why the people should vote for the candidate who is so obviously NOT fascist scum……. I, in my lightness, decide to step in and order my vassals to NOT SAY that thing they were going to say. Well, a rose by any other name.
In addition to Woodward and Bernstein who have spoken, I await word from others whose writing I admire at The Washington Post. These include Carol Leonnig, Phil Rucker, Jonathan Capehart, Robert Costa. The resistance may come from within.
Ivy.. PJ O’Rourke lived in the town next to mine. My husband works on maintaining a hiking trail that goes through PJ’s land. When he was alive, he used to help my husband with cutting brush. I’ve met him many times. He liked to do book signings at a local independent bookstore. Yes… he was always kind.
Craig – I am in deep debate myself on cutting off WashPo. Does it mean anything to the billionaire? Nah. The newspaper is a toy, something he can show off. The jungle site, and the many little jungle sites, are his world. The only way he can be upset is if someone goes in and breaks up his little world, like Ma Bell and the Baby Bells.
I did cut off the LA Times subscription. It was nice to have, but only a shell of what it was. I have kept the San Fransisco Chronicle to keep up with California goings on.
WashPo though is our local paper, there is no replacement for it. However, if it continues on its slow path away from the real world and keeps incorporating the magat world, I will slice it off the list too.
Mr Tiny Mouse from the sticks: Knowing the way Mr Beezoose feels, there is no way I can read his rag of a paper. A rag is a rag is a rag. I stopped cold turkey reading The Post and Courier when they showed their colors during Bush 2. The other day I saw a copy at the barber’s and noticed how much it had shrunk. Ha. Good—shrink some more ya buncha right wing schmucks.
I haven’t missed the first damn thing. It’s all on the internet now, and if a paper is only going to support rt wing assholes, I don’t read em
When Trump was president, he tried to punish Bezos for stuff being said in the Wapo. It cost Amazon a 10 billion cloud computing contract with the Department of Defense. Amazon sued and during the Biden years the contract was canceled and a new contract was bid that spread the services out between 4 different companies.
With the election currently tied it is just prudence on the part of Bezos to do as little to offend Trump as possible,
But it does show just how fragile our 4th estate is these days.
Jack
The Washington Post’s cartoon team has taken a measure of revenge on the newspaper’s decision to avoid making a formal presidential endorsement with a dark formless image clearly designed to skewer the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” slogan that the outlet adopted during billionaire Jeff Bezos’s ownership.
“I am asking y’all from the core of my being to take our lives seriously. Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men, who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going through … Please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump, who knows nothing about us. Who has shown deep contempt for us. Because a vote for him is a vote against us. Against our health. Against our worth.”
“I hope that you will forgive me if I’m a little angry that we are indifferent to Donald Trump’s erratic behavior. His obvious mental decline, his history as a convicted felon, a known slumlord, a predator found liable for sexual abuse. All of this while we pick apart Kamala’s answers from interviews that he doesn’t even have the courage to do.”
— Michelle Obama
The full Petri: The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those “roots,” I’m told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! Go even further back, and the entire continent of North America was totally uninhabitable, and we were all spineless creatures who lived in the ocean, and certainly there were no Post subscribers. But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them. Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny. This whole election, I have been lurching around, increasingly heavily pregnant, nauseated, unwieldy, full of the commingled hopes and terrors that come… Read more »
U.S. presidential sayings that will go down in history:
“government of the people, by the people and for the people”
“ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country”
“we’re like a garbage can of the world”
other news of things trashed
Attribution: Newspapers fail to endorse presidential candidate by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
The Guardrails Are Already Crumpling – by Jonathan V. Last ON FRIDAY AFTERNOON, the Washington Post announced that it would not be making an endorsement in the presidential race. After that, a number of things happened very quickly. First, the paper’s former executive editor Marty Baron called the decision “cowardice.” Second, at least one senior Post opinion writer resigned. Third, it was leaked that the editor of the editorial page had already drafted the paper’s endorsement of Kamala Harris when publisher Will Lewis—who is a new hire, hailing from the Rupert Murdoch journalism tree—quashed it and then released a CYA statement about how the paper was “returning to its roots” of not endorsing candidates. The Post itself reported that the decision was made by the paper’s owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Everything about this story feels like a tempest in a teapot, a boiling story about legacy media fretting over itself in the mirror. It’s not. It’s a situation analogous to what we saw in Russia in the early 2000s: We are witnessing the surrender of the American business community to Donald Trump. No one cares about the Washington Post’s presidential endorsement. It will not move a single vote. The only people who care about newspaper editorial page endorsements are newspaper editorial writers. No one really cares all that much about the future of the Washington Post, either. I mean, I care about it, because I care about journalism and I respect the institution. But this isn’t a journalism story.… Read more »
New York Times Editorial:
Kamala Harris is the only patriotic choice for president.
kudos to NYT. wonder if/when wapo’s draft endorsing kamala will show up before election. here’s another take from c j review no less: The Washington Post opinion editor approved a Harris endorsement. A week later, Jeff Bezos killed it. – Columbia Journalism Review On Friday, the Washington Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, announced that the paper would no longer make endorsements for president—after its journalists had already drafted an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris. The decision was made by Jeff Bezos, the paper’s owner. Over a period of several weeks, a Post staffer told me, two Post board members, Charles Lane and Stephen W. Stromberg, had worked on drafts of a Harris endorsement. (Neither was contacted for this article.) “Normally we’d have had a meeting, review a draft, make suggestions, do editing,” the staffer told me. Editorial writers started to feel angsty a few weeks ago, per the staffer; the process stalled. Around a week ago, editorial page editor David Shipley told the editorial board that the endorsement was on track, adding that “this is obviously something our owner has an interest in.” “We thought we were dickering over language—not over whether there would be an endorsement,” the Post staffer said. So journalists at the Post, in both the news and opinion departments, were stunned Friday after Shipley told the editorial board at a meeting that it would not take a position after all. This represents the first time the Post has sat out a presidential endorsement since 1988. The… Read more »
The concert was incredible, and my Dodgers won. Great day.
https://www.fox17online.com/news/local-news/millions-from-musk-holland-man-wins-1-million-from-elon-musk-political-pac
Link up above. A man from where I live won a million dollars from Elon Musk.
American business leaders should take a lesson from Putin’s oligarchs — many who did not stay on bended knee are dead. His oligarchs fell in line and once no longer a source of concern for Putin they became vassals. Which is exactly what Jeff Bezos has just taught Jamie Dimon and every other important American businessman.
From a frighteningly prophetic book, “On Tyranny” by Timothy Snyder:
It’s the women, stupid.
In early ballots we’ve NEVER seen a gender gap like this: Votes cast by women 10 points higher than men compared to about 5 points in recent elections.
If Harris wins by a surprising number, this will be why pollsters didn’t see it coming — they modeled turnout on past elections.
9.5 million early votes cast so far in the 7 swing states: 952,866 more women have voted than men, or 55.1-44.9%. Gender turnout gap is +14% points in MI, +13 in PA, +12 in GA, +10 in WI, +9 in NC, +4 in AZ, -2 in NV.
Joy in the morning, a battle cry. LOD gave up his show to show Harris in H-Town.
Lifelong subscribers to WAPO flat-quit yesterday according to various reports. Shame on WAPO. The Times carried the ball over the goal line however.
Harris held a one topic event and only mentioned Colin Allred twice. I had assumed she would have had him onstage. So this was a plea to women all over the swing states, as Texas is solid red.
I am concerned canceling WAPO subscription only hurts honest hard-working journalists working there. Bezos is too rich to feel any impact, even if the whole place shut down.
Isn’t it illegal to take a bribe?
So why isn’t Bezos brave enough to make an outright endorsement of the fat man? Plumpty doesn’t reward anything less than abject fealty.
Bezo doesn’t care whether I read his paper, watch his Prime video, buy from his Amazon or shop at his Whole Foods. At this point, I’m not boycotting. I’m voting.
Those journalists should be RESIGNING from any paper which has shown itself to be a Russian asset.
And regardless of whether Bezos “needs” the paper he doesn’t want a paper which has turned to shit, and also there is no damn reason for anyone to support such a paper.
Ivy… that’s exactly how I feel. I’m not canceling my subscription to WaPo… and like Craig… I respect the journalist that work there.
The only reason I signed up for Amazon Prime was to watch The Man in the High Castle.
When the time comes, we’ll have no choice but to join The Resistance.
Sturg… I respectfully disagree with you. I’ve been reading WaPo for years and never once thought of it as a Russian asset. Bob Woodard still works there and I don’t see how anyone can think he’s a Russian asset.
I am glad that many of the journalists there have come out strongly against Bezos decision.
As BiD would remind us… we need to tax the rich. And as PJ O’Rourke would tell us… we need to eat them.
Renee, Mr. Ivy and I met PJ O’Rourke. He came to speak to our group. He hung around long enough for it to be down to just the three of us left in the room. It was so kind and generous even though we were just a couple of dorks waiting to speak to him.
Elon killed Twitter. Bezos killed WaPo.
Orange Adolf kills everything he touches.
Project 2025 Don’t let it happen to you!
ps – Corey, If that guy accepts the money, he may be in hot water.
The Full Maureen: Usually, I get political wisdom from Rahm Emanuel, not his brother Ari. But a quote from Ari, the Hollywood macher, to Puck’s Matthew Belloni about the gender chasm in 2024 caught my eye. “This election is gonna come down to probably 120,000 votes,” Ari said. “You probably have 60 percent of the male vote for Trump, and the female vote is 60-40 for Kamala. It’s a jump ball. We’re gonna find out who wants this more — men or women.” Are we back to the days of Mars versus Venus? Or did we never leave? It is the ultimate battle of the sexes in the most visceral of elections. Who will prevail? The women, especially young women, who are appalled at the cartoonish macho posturing and benighted stances of Donald Trump and his entourage? Or the men, including many young men, union men, Latino and Black men, who are drawn to Trump’s swaggering, bullying and insulting, seeing him as the reeling-backward antidote to shrinking male primacy. Drilling into the primal yearnings of men and women — their priorities, identities, anger and frustration — makes this election even more fraught. When I wrote a book about gender in 2005, I assumed that, a couple of decades later, we’d all be living peacefully on the same planet. But no Cassandra, I. The sexual revolution intensified our muddle, leaving women in a tangle of dependence and independence in the 21st century. The more we imitated men, the more we realized how… Read more »
Reb Ren I can dig your point of view.
To me, there is a reason the paper wouldn’t endorse. “Why?” Is the question and it seems to stem from something not plainly evident. To me something is rotten on the Wapo and it smells like an oligarch, a Murdoch and Russia.
Woodward? The one who sat on information to save for his book? Well, anyway he doesn’t need to be working for swine.
Let’s say I’m so freakin rich I can OWN a newspaper like Wapo. And….faced with the choice we have here, when the Editorial staff of MY paper writes up a long and deadly serious opinion of why the people should vote for the candidate who is so obviously NOT fascist scum……. I, in my lightness, decide to step in and order my vassals to NOT SAY that thing they were going to say. Well, a rose by any other name.
Pro quo bono?
In addition to Woodward and Bernstein who have spoken, I await word from others whose writing I admire at The Washington Post. These include Carol Leonnig, Phil Rucker, Jonathan Capehart, Robert Costa. The resistance may come from within.
Megyn Kelly was reprehensible on Bill Maher. She comes across as a paid spokesperson, not as someone who believes what’s coming out of her mouth.
I don’t want to go back to the time when “her guy” was in power and pestilence was unleashed.
Ivy.. PJ O’Rourke lived in the town next to mine. My husband works on maintaining a hiking trail that goes through PJ’s land. When he was alive, he used to help my husband with cutting brush. I’ve met him many times. He liked to do book signings at a local independent bookstore. Yes… he was always kind.
The paper bcomes One Man’s Opinion.
I guess kinda like The Shinbone Star.
Oh well.
Renee, thanks for that. Great to know PJ was the real deal. I was saddened by his loss.
Craig – I am in deep debate myself on cutting off WashPo. Does it mean anything to the billionaire? Nah. The newspaper is a toy, something he can show off. The jungle site, and the many little jungle sites, are his world. The only way he can be upset is if someone goes in and breaks up his little world, like Ma Bell and the Baby Bells.
I did cut off the LA Times subscription. It was nice to have, but only a shell of what it was. I have kept the San Fransisco Chronicle to keep up with California goings on.
WashPo though is our local paper, there is no replacement for it. However, if it continues on its slow path away from the real world and keeps incorporating the magat world, I will slice it off the list too.
Almost a Tiananmen Square moment just now at Trump MI rally… One man yells “You’re a fascist”.. https://x.com/AlexisMcAdamsTV/status/1850229320276496386?t=pcnXBrlFRKaLBYlBLhWWvw&s=19
Big Balls in Cow Town.
in honor of Kamala’s rally last night…
Mr Tiny Mouse from the sticks: Knowing the way Mr Beezoose feels, there is no way I can read his rag of a paper. A rag is a rag is a rag. I stopped cold turkey reading The Post and Courier when they showed their colors during Bush 2. The other day I saw a copy at the barber’s and noticed how much it had shrunk. Ha. Good—shrink some more ya buncha right wing schmucks.
I haven’t missed the first damn thing. It’s all on the internet now, and if a paper is only going to support rt wing assholes, I don’t read em
The only voice Mr Tiny Mouse has.
When Trump was president, he tried to punish Bezos for stuff being said in the Wapo. It cost Amazon a 10 billion cloud computing contract with the Department of Defense. Amazon sued and during the Biden years the contract was canceled and a new contract was bid that spread the services out between 4 different companies.
With the election currently tied it is just prudence on the part of Bezos to do as little to offend Trump as possible,
But it does show just how fragile our 4th estate is these days.
Jack
Kamala and Michele coming up in five minutes..
Michele on stage
from msn:
click for wapo’s very own prize-winning cartoonist’s Opinion | Ann Telnaes cartoon on The Post not endorsing a presidential candidate – The Washington Post
Crowd mesmerized by Michele Obama’s emotional speech on women’s health. “We are more than baby making vessels”
Michele Obama
Michele delivered one of the most effective arguments for women’s rights all year. Explicit, direct, and aimed squarely at “the men who love us”
He brought us pestilence.
Michelle Obama to “the men who love us”:
WaPo has been relatively milquetoast since 2017, correct me if i’m wrong but they’ve seemed MIA this whole election season
I second that emotion.
A post went up on our neighborhood page that Harris yard signs are being stolen.
It has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Kamala Harr for president.
—Alexandra Petri. Wapo
https://x.com/KeithOlbermann/status/1850313860256801166
I don’t get in at the wash po so maybe someone who can will post the Petri column.
She had me with the headline.
She’s looking for a new gig, I betcha.
The full Petri: The Washington Post is not bothering to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Blue Origin and the founder and executive chairman of Amazon and Amazon Web Services, also owns The Post.) We as a newspaper suddenly remembered, less than two weeks before the election, that we had a robust tradition 50 years ago of not telling anyone what to do with their vote for president. It is time we got back to those “roots,” I’m told! Roots are important, of course. As recently as the 1970s, The Post did not endorse a candidate for president. As recently as centuries ago, there was no Post and the country had a king! Go even further back, and the entire continent of North America was totally uninhabitable, and we were all spineless creatures who lived in the ocean, and certainly there were no Post subscribers. But if I were the paper, I would be a little embarrassed that it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to make our presidential endorsement. I will spare you the suspense: I am endorsing Kamala Harris for president, because I like elections and want to keep having them. Let me tell you something. I am having a baby (It’s a boy!), and he is expected on Jan. 6, 2025 (It’s a … Proud Boy?). This is either slightly funny or not at all funny. This whole election, I have been lurching around, increasingly heavily pregnant, nauseated, unwieldy, full of the commingled hopes and terrors that come… Read more »
“Roots” he says, straightening his face.
Yeah, ok, cool……..
And I am Marie of Roumania
NEW THREAD by our trail friend Jack