A federal judge has issued a restraining order against #KariLake & the #Trump admin barring the cancelation of funding for #RadioFreeEurope.
The decision to terminate, the judge says, appears to violate the #law & the intent of #Congress.
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#fourthestate
1 post1 participant1 post today
“There is no doubt in my mind that he is doing this out of #fear of the consequences for his other business interests, #Amazon (the source of his #wealth) & #BlueOrigin (which represents his lifelong passion for space exploration),” #MartyBaron wrote Wednesday. “He has prioritized those commercial interests over The Post, & he is betraying The Post’s longstanding #principles to do so.”
#Bezos ended the #WashingtonPost‘s decades-long tradition of presidential endorsements—& scrapped a planned #endorsement of #KamalaHarris—last fall, & he appeared alongside other #tech *leaders* [#technocrats / #oligarchs] at Trump’s inauguration…. He also donated $1M to #Trump’s inaugural cmte.
“It was only weeks ago that The Post described itself as providing coverage for ‘all of America,’” #MartyBaron wrote in his statement. “Now its opinion pages will be open to only some of America, those who think exactly as he does.”
…Baron also accused #Bezos of acquiescing to #Trump & the his attacks on the #press for his own business interests.
#MartyBaron — played by Liev Schriber in Oscar-winning movie Spotlight—served as the paper’s executive editor from early 2013, months before #Bezos purchased the Post, through to early 2021. He documented his relationship w/the #Amazon founder in his book Collision of Power: Trump, Bezos, & the #WashingtonPost.
In his statement, Baron wondered how Bezos’ support for personal liberties squared with his mandate for limited views on the #opinion pages.
#Bezos said on Wed he would mandate the paper’s #opinions section to focus on supporting #FreeMarkets & #PersonalLiberties, saying those pieces w/opposing views can “be left to be published by others.”
The move was rebuked by current & former #WashingtonPost staffers, though it was praised in a trolling post by #Trump’s WH.
Legendary #WashingtonPost Editor, #MartyBaron, Slams #Bezos for ‘Betraying’ Paper with #MAGA Makeover
Fmr WaPo executive editor Marty Baron condemned #JeffBezos’ revamp of the paper’s #opinions section in a statement to the Daily Beast, saying he was “sad & disgusted” by the #billionaire’s demands.
#FourthEstate #journalism #media #FreePress #censorship #propaganda #trumpaganda #ViewPointDiscrimination #Trump #law #USpol
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ex-wapo-editor-marty-baron-sad-and-disgusted-at-bezos-opinions-overhaul/
The Daily Beast · Legendary Washington Post Editor Slams Bezos for ‘Betraying’ Paper with MAGA Makeover
@GottaLaff You have voiced exactly the feelings I have every time I watch a news broadcast. It is incredibly frustrating to hear a constant barrage of negative vile events with no attempt to offer ways to counter. Canadian foreign-owned media does exactly the same. It parrots slanderous attacks and slick slogans without offering any factual information on the issue. The #FourthEstate no longer advocates for citizens. It has very sadly morphed into #FourthEstateFilth.
The biggest take-away from the US election:
The fourth estate is dead. Without a free press, democracy cannot exist.
EDIT: Not only do we not have a free press, we have a propaganda press.
Shipley held a contentious meeting on Monday with scores of #opinion section staffers, who posed tough questions to the #editorial page chief, including appeals for #Bezos to address them.
As recently as last week, according to a person present, Shipley said he sought to talk Bezos out of his decision. Shipley added, “I failed.”
“I believe we face a very real threat of #autocracy in the candidacy of Donald #Trump,” Hoffman added in his letter to #Editorial Page Editor #DavidShipley, which was obtained by NPR. “I find it untenable & unconscionable that we have lost our voice."
Hoffman says he intends to remain at the paper, saying he "refuses to give up on The Post, where I have spent 42 years.
“For decades, the #WashingtonPost's editorials have been a beacon of light, signaling hope to dissidents, political prisoners & the voiceless,” Hoffman wrote in a letter Monday explaining his decision to leave the editorial board. “When victims of repression were harassed, exiled, imprisoned & murdered, we made sure the whole world knew the truth.
The other writer is David Hoffman, who accepted a #PulitzerPrize for #editorial writing on Thurs, the day before #Bezos’ decision…. Pulitzer judges recognized him “for a compelling & well-researched series on new #technologies & the tactics #authoritarian regimes use to repress #dissent in the digital age, & how they can be fought.”
The decision by #Bezos, the #billionaire founder of #Amazon, was first reported by NPR on Friday. In the days since, 2 columnists have resigned from the paper & 2 writers have stepped down from the #editorial board.
One of those #writers, Molly Roberts, warned of the possible consequences of the 11th-hour decision to stay quiet rather than publish the editorial endorsing #Harris. "#Trump is not yet a #dictator," she wrote in a stmnt. "But the quieter we are, the closer he comes."
The number of cancellations continued to grow Monday afternoon.
A corporate spokesperson declined to comment, citing The #WashingtonPost Co.'s status as a privately held company.
“It’s a colossal number,” former Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli told NPR. “The problem is, people don’t know why the decision was made. We basically know the decision was made but we don’t know what led to it.”
The #WashingtonPost has been rocked by a tidal wave of cancellations of digital #subscriptions & a series of #resignations from columnists, as the paper grapples w/the fallout of owner #Bezos’s decision to block an #endorsement of #KamalaHarris.
>200k people had canceled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday…. The figure represents about 8% of the paper’s paid circulation of 2.5M subscribers, which includes print as well.
#FourthEstate #democracy #journalism
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/28/nx-s1-5168416/washington-post-bezos-endorsement-president-cancellations-resignations
“One person familiar w/the figures told Semafor that the decision already seemed to be impacting subscriptions. In the 24hrs ending Friday afternoon, about 2,000 subscribers canceled their subscriptions, an unusually high number, an employee said. Another email that the #WashingtonPost sent out to subscribers on Fri also prompted a flurry of complaints from readers about the paper’s lack of an #endorsement.”
#democracy #FourthEstate #journalism #media #acquiescence #WaPo
https://www.semafor.com/article/10/25/2024/editor-resign-subscribers-cancel-as-washington-post-non-endorsement-prompts-crisis-at-bezos-paper
www.semafor.com · Editor resigns, subscribers cancel as Washington Post non-endorsement prompts crisis at Bezos paper | Semafor
…”The most serious allegation…is that #SoonShiong & #Bezos are trying to hedge their bets out of fear that their business interests could be harmed during a 2nd #Trump presidency. Soon-Shiong, who made his fortune as a biopharmaceutical innovator, is working on new drugs that would…require #FDA approval. #Amazon faces an #antitrust lawsuit, brought last year by the #Biden admin, that will take yrs to litigate or settle.”
#democracy #FourthEstate #journalism #acquiescence #WashingtonPost #LATimes
CJR: “Ian Bassin, a #democracy expert, calls these moves ‘anticipatory obedience’: fear by owners that if #Trump wins he could take #vengeance on companies that cross him. They noted that the leadership at CNN & the #WashingtonPost changed after the Trump administration tried to block the takeover of CNN’s parent company & tried to deny a cloud computing contract for #Amazon, #Bezos’s company.”
#democracy #FourthEstate #journalism #media #acquiescence #WaPo
https://www.cjr.org/political_press/the-washington-post-opinion-editor-approved-a-harris-endorsement-a-week-later-the-papers-publisher-killed-it.php
Columbia Journalism ReviewThe Washington Post opinion editor approved a Harris endorsement. A week later, Jeff Bezos killed it.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 […]
Another major editor, Marcus Brauchli – who from 2008 to 2012 preceded Baron as #WashingtonPost‘s executive editor, & edited The WSJ before that – offered his own eviscerating criticism of #Bezos’ decision in a statement to the Beast: “There are perfectly good reasons a newspaper might give for not endorsing a presidential candidate.
“The Post didn’t offer any, & its timing was awful & looks, whatever the reasoning, #gutless or #craven.“