Jeff Bezos Defends Washington Post's Non-Endorsement In Rare Op-Ed: 'Meaningful Step'

Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos on Monday defended the publication's decision to not endorse a presidential candidate this year in a rare op-ed. The billionaire wrote that the paper's decision was a 'meaningful step in the right direction'. This comes after the Post announced that it will neither back Kamala Harris nor side with Donald Trump. “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election,” Bezos wrote. “What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.”Washington Post's CEO Will Lewis announced on Thursday that the publication would not endorse a candidate for president for the first time since 1988. It will cease to do so for future elections. More than 200,000 people have canceled subscriptions to the newspaper after the release of Lewis' memo, according to an NPR report citing two people at the paper with knowledge of internal matters.Bezos further wrote: "No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. Eugene Meyer, publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, thought the same, and he was right. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction.""I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy," the Amazon founder added.