Jeff Bezos: Endorsements ‘Create Perception of Bias’

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos broke his silence over the newspaper’s endorsement row that has dominated media platforms for the past three days and led to mass resignations at the paper, writing in an opinion piece Monday night that he was at least in on the decision and wishes he had done it sooner.

In a column titled “The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media,” Bezos, also the founder of Amazon, wrote that he nixed the newspaper’s endorsement of Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris because endorsements don’t matter anymore, save for a “perception of bias.”

“Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”