Billionaire Newspaper Owners Block Presidential Endorsements
Plus, What's next after Israel's limited counterstrike on Iran
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📌 INSIDE LA TIMES & WASHINGTON POST DECISION NOT TO ENDORSE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
The Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post announced separately late last week that their editorial boards would not make a presidential endorsement, breaking with the decades-old tradition. The billionaire owners of both publications made the final last-minute calls, despite opinion staff having endorsements for Vice President Kamala Harris ready.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, bought the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million. Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, who made a fortune in pharmaceuticals and healthcare software, bought the LA Times for $500 million in 2018.
Both vowed to keep their personal interests out of the paper. Both men have major government business at stake should Trump win the election next week.
As you can imagine, the decision NOT to endorse a candidate has sparked waves of subscription cancellations and resignations at their respective publications.
INSIDE THE DECISION
Newsrooms for major papers operate independently from their opinion department, where the editorial page team opines daily about major events, including endorsing political candidates. Opinion pages slants historically have been in line with the interests of owners (e.g. Rupert Murdoch-owned WSJ and NY Post have conservative pages while the NY Times—owned by the Sulzberger family—has run liberal).
Recent history: The LA Times and Washington Post (both with liberal opinion/editorial pages) endorsed Barack Obama twice, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Joe Biden in 2020.
This election, both papers have endorsed candidates at the local and state levels.
Why the non-endorsement? The LA Times’s Soon-Shiong posted on X that he wanted something different than a traditional endorsement, with “clear and non-partisan information side-by-side” instead. He said he wanted the editorial board to lay out the positive and negative policies of both candidates.
Soon-Shiong’s daughter, a known progressive, political activist, who has been accused of meddling in newsroom decisions claims the non-endorsement motivated by Harris’s continued support for Israel in its war in Gaza. However, no one else at the paper is backing up that claim.
For his part, Bezos has stayed silent so far. The Washington Post publisher Will Lewis said, "We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.” He referenced the paper's policy in the decades prior to their 1976 presidential endorsement.
THE PUSHBACK
Critics of the move, including many inside the newsroom, say that the papers’ owners made the decision out of fear former President Trump would retaliate against them if elected.
Muddying the news: Hours after the Post announced its decision on Friday, Trump met with executives from Blue Origin, the space exploration company owned by Bezos, which has a $3.4 billion contract with the federal government.
Also during Trump’s first term, Amazon filed a lawsuit alleging it had been passed over for a $10 billion cloud computing contract as punishment to Bezos for the Post’s reporting on Trump.
Soon-Shiong unsuccessfully sought a senior role overseeing US health care during the Trump administration. He is in pharmaceuticals and working on cancer drugs that may need FDA approval.
NY TIMES NOT BACKING DOWN
The New York Times’ editorial board endorsed Harris on Sept. 30 saying she is “The Only Patriotic Choice for President.” Yesterday’s opinion page read:
But the NY Times is also changing its endorsement structure. This year, the paper announced that the editorial board would no longer endorse candidates in New York races.
No major Chicago papers endorsed candidates. In 2022, the Tribune and the more than 200 publications owned by hedge fund Alden Global Capital stopped endorsing candidates and the Sun-Times is now a non-profit and cannot.
The changes come as there is little evidence that the endorsements actually make a difference in the presidential races. The American Presidency Project tracks the US’s top 100 newspapers and found that only two papers— the Las Vegas Review-Journal and the Florida Times-Union— backed Trump’s successful 2016 bid (the rest either endorsed Clinton, urged readers not to vote for Trump, or didn’t endorse).
BACKLASH INSIDE PAPERS
LA Times editorial board head Mariel Garza and two members, along with the Post’s editorial columnist Robert Kagan, all resigned from their papers in the wake of the decision not to endorse. Additional resignations continue to pour in. Dozens of opinion columnists and hundreds of staff members at the papers have openly called the decision a mistake.
Garza said she resigned because she is “not OK with us being silent” and that “in dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.” She added that the paper looks “craven and hypocritical.”
Kagan said that, in his view, the decision not to endorse a candidate was “clearly a sign of pre-emptive favor currying” with Trump.
Legendary Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein said the move “ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.”
🇮🇱 ISRAEL HITS IRANIAN MILITARY SITES, SAYS SETBACK FOR 🇮🇷 MISSILE PROGRAM
Israel launched its long-awaited retaliatory attacks on Iran early Saturday morning. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the counter-strike had severely damaged Iran’s defense capabilities, with intelligence officials reporting that a critical component in Iran's ballistic missile program was hit.
Experts say that by hitting military targets rather than industrial facilities, fears of a wider war are eased— for now. It comes as hostage and ceasefire negotiations for Gaza resumed last week for the first time in two months.
A STRIKE TO DETER STRIKES
The high-stakes retaliation stemmed from Tehran’s nearly 200 ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this month— which itself was a reaction to Israel assassinating leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah which Iran funds and arms.
Three waves of Israeli jets struck missile factories and other military sites near Tehran and in western Iran, Israeli military sources report.
Current stockpile: Iran has depleted its missile stockpile from the war, and this wave of attacks may make it harder for its military to send another barrage of missiles toward Israel.
Axios reports that Israel hit 12 Chinese-made "planetary mixers" used to produce solid fuel for long-range ballistic missiles. Iran depends on China to make the highly sophisticated equipment. It could take a year to replace them.
Tehran’s inability to produce new ballistic missiles will also impact the ballistic missile stockpiles of its proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Iran’s response: Despite the strike that hit several facilities and killed four Iranian soldiers, Iran's supreme leader dismissed the attack and stopped short of calling for immediate retaliations— suggesting Iran may not retaliate directly against Israel.
NEGOTIATIONS CONTINUE
American officials were notified by Israel ahead of the strikes, but were not involved in the operation. US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were back in the Middle East last week trying to work on a hostage / ceasefire deal.
The newest proposal comes from Egypt, and would include a 48-hour truce where four hostages are released for Palestinians imprisoned by Israel.
Israel and Hamas would then hold 10 days of talks to get to a permanent agreement.
Stalemate: On-again, off-again talks for a 6-week ceasefire have lasted nearly a year, with no success. So, the new goal is something much less ambitious: Two days and a couple hostages for prisoners.
⏳ SPEED READ
🚨NATION
📌 Which states voters matter the most for president (AXIOS)
📌 Trump MSG rally faces backlash over crude remarks, including comedian calling Puerto Rico “island of garbage” (USA TODAY)
📌 Tim Walz and AOC play football video game on Twitch in appeal to young men (GUARDIAN)
📌 Biden says Elon Musk was an ‘illegal worker’ when he began US career (ABC)
📌 Trump records a 3-hour interview with Joe Rogan about the election, Harris and whales (NBC NEWS)
🌎 AROUND THE WORLD
📌 One killed, dozens injured in truck ramming at Israeli bus stop (BBC)
📌 Japan's ruling party loses its majority after snap election (AP)
📌 Another domino falls to Vladimir Putin after Georgia’s tense election, European monitors say it was was marred by intimidation (NPR)
📌 Polls open in Uruguay in a general election free of the deep political divisions seen elsewhere in South America (ABC)
📱BUSINESS, SCIENCE & TECH
📌 Trump doubles down on replacing income taxes with tariffs in Joe Rogan interview (CNBC)
📌 More families making over $150,000 are living paycheck to paycheck (CNN)
📌 Testing rules out beef patties as the source of E. coli outbreak, McDonald’s says (AP)
📌 Daylight saving time ends next weekend: How to prepare for the change (ABC)
🎬 SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
📌 Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead bassist and founding member, dies at 84 (NBC)
📌 Michigan and Michigan State throw punches, push and shove after Wolverines beat rival Spartans (AP)
📌 Dodgers 'encouraged' by early indications after Ohtani injures shoulder in G2 (MLB)
📌 CA Gov. Newsom and LA Mayor Bass announce "major proposal" aimed at enhancing film and TV industry (CBS)
🗓 ON THIS DAY: OCTOBER 28
1636: Harvard University, the oldest higher education institute in the US, was founded by the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Harvard was the first major benefactor.
1886: The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, was dedicated in New York Harbor by President Grover Cleveland.
The Mo You Know: The statue, made of shiny copper, was originally reddish-brown. The color changed over time due to a chemical reaction with the air in New York harbor— and now looks green.
1972: Stevie Wonder released ‘Talking Book,’ his 15th studio album which featured ‘Superstition’ and ‘You Are the Sunshine of My Life.’
2016: The FBI announced it was investigating whether emails on a device belonging to disgraced ex-congressman Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Hillary Clinton’s closest aides, Huma Abedin, might contain classified information two weeks before the election. They found out a week later that there was nothing of issue on the laptop.