Ex-WaPo Editor: Bezos Struck 'Quid-Pro-Quo' Deal With Trump

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Facts

  • Former Washington Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan, who resigned last Friday following the paper's decision not to endorse a candidate in the US presidential election, has alleged that The Post's owner, Jeff Bezos, struck a secret deal with former Pres. Donald Trump to drop its planned endorsement of Vice Pres. Kamala Harris.[1][2]
  • Kagan claims that Trump met with executives at Blue Origin — Bezos' space exploration company — the same day as The Post's announcement and there was a 'quid pro quo' agreement to end the paper's decades-long practice of endorsing a presidential candidate.[3][4]
  • Kagan added that The Post's decision to pull the Harris endorsement had 'been in the works for some time.' However, there was no explanation for the announcement's timing, and a spokeswoman for The Post said that ending presidential endorsements was solely a 'Washington Post decision.'[5][6]
  • Will Lewis, The Post's publisher, has since released a statement saying the decision not to back a presidential candidate was 'made entirely internally,' claiming that the paper did not speak to either campaign about the decision. He described reports to the contrary as 'simply incorrect.'[7]
  • Bezos's Blue Origin — an American aerospace manufacturer — has a $3.4B contract with the federal government to build 'a human landing system as NASA's second provider to deliver Artemis astronauts to the lunar surface,' per NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.[8][9]

Sources: [1]New York Post, [2]New York Times (a), [3]AlterNet, [4]ConservativeHQ, [5]The Daily Beast, [6]New York Times (b), [7]Washington Post, [8]NASA and [9]Blue Origin.

Narratives

  • Republican narrative, as provided by Breitbart and World News. The Post's decision to refrain from endorsing a presidential candidate is a step toward true journalistic neutrality. It allows readers to form their own opinions without undue influence from the paper. The allegations of a quid pro quo are baseless and ignore the publisher's stated reasons for the decision.
  • Democratic narrative, as provided by Guardian and Huffington Post. The decision not to endorse a candidate is a cowardly move that undermines democracy. It's a clear example of corporate interests bowing to political pressure, potentially sacrificing journalistic integrity for financial gain. This sets a dangerous precedent for media self-censorship and could further erode press freedom.

Predictions