One of the clichés in the news business is the reader or viewer who cancels their subscription or stops watching after a news outlet does just one thing that displeases them. Anyone who’s ever sat at the city desk has picked up the phone only to hear a reader say, “I’ll never read your newspaper again and neither will any of my friends.”
  The Washington Post has lost at least 250,000 subscribers both delivery and digital since the paper’s owner, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, decided not to endorse a presidential candidate on the cusp of a bitter election. Editors and columnists have resigned in protest.
  The Los Angeles Times and the entire Gannett newspaper chain of 200 publications also said they will not endorse a candidate.
  The mistake Bezos made was not blocking an endorsement but failing to do it months earlier and not explaining his decision on the day that his publisher Will Lewis announced it. Bezos left himself exposed to speculation that he is afraid of endorsing Kamala Harris and displeasing the vengeful Donald Trump should he be elected despite any news outlet’s endorsement. Companies Bezos controls have shipping, cloud computing, and space exploration contracts with federal agencies, leaving Bezos open to financial retribution by an angry and re-born President Donald Trump.
  Bezos eventually spoke up in a well-written and reasoned explanation put up on the Post website. He pointed out that the news business is less trusted than Congress and that, “Most people believe the media is biased.” He said, “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.” 
  Bezos rightly points out that almost no one decides who they want for president because of a newspaper editorial. He said, “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.”
  Probably every reader protesting the lack of endorsement already planned to vote for Kamala Harris, so why do they need an endorsement? And when you think about it, anyone at this point who doesn’t know who they are going to vote for doesn’t know the sun rises in the east.
  Bezos has owned The Post since 2013 and proved he doesn’t care about the money. The paper lost $77 million last year alone. He wrote, “I challenge you to find one instance in those 11 years where I have prevailed upon anyone at The Post in favor of my own interests. It hasn’t happened.”
  Bezos has doubled the news staff and stood firm while reporter Jason Rezaian was imprisoned in Iran and Saudi agents assassinated contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Bezos was behind the front page slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” 
 The Post’s former editor Marty Baron said in a social media post that the decision not to endorse was “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.” But what Jeff Bezos did may actually have been an act of bravery and cancelling their subscription is cowardice on the part of readers who feel they have to agree with everything the paper says and does. Cancelling a newspaper subscription won’t hurt Jeff Bezos and he won’t change his mind because of it. What that would say is  what he really cares about after all is the money.  The people likely to get hurt are the reporters who’ve made it their life work to bring information and truth to the reading public, to bring light to democracy. If you want to stand up for freedom and democracy, subscribe to a newspaper and read it.

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