-57 points

I don’t really understand. A news outlet shouldn’t be engaging in bias.

So it’s unethical and propaganda when one endorses your opponent and just as much so when one doesn’t do the same thing for yours?

In other countries, we call that hypocrisy or a ‘doible-standard’. I believe I’ve heard Americans say something similar as, “Rules for thee but not for me.”

The only thing that should be done is reporting on the other news outlet breeching journalism ethics or influencing in an election, because that’s the news here.

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8 points

I don’t really understand. A news outlet shouldn’t be engaging in bias.

I don’t really understand. A commenter shouldn’t so obviously have bad faith takes on their profile.

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19 points

Uhh, stating that Kamala Harris would make a better President than Donald Trump is a factual statement, not a biased one.

There is no objective measure to assess the performance of a President where Trump would exceed Harris.

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8 points

Just so you know, Saltesc has made a string of bad faith comments that are pro right-wing bs.

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3 points

I don’t disagree at all. Trump is an absolute madman, and it’s amazing to me that he’s even in the conversation for running for president.

But, facts need to be cited, always. If a newspaper endorses Harris and says she’s a better candidate than Trump, they had better explain with evidence why this is the case. Not doing so would be just as biased, and one of the cornerstones of a Democratic campaign is truth.

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2 points

Well, yeah. Presumably that’s why WaPo had a whole editorial devoted to it, and not just one sentence that said “Harris will be a better President than Trump.”

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9 points
*
Removed by mod
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36 points

This clown has done an insurrection, says he’s allowed to kill political opponents, promises to be a dictator, says Haitians are eating cats. Among other things, that’s nowhere near a comprehensive list. Any news outlet that is not explicitly saying “this is the worst choice for the country” is biased. It is an objective fact that Donald is the wrong choice.

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7 points
*

This clown has done an insurrection, says he’s allowed to kill political opponents, promises to be a dictator, says Haitians are eating cats. Among other things, that’s nowhere near a comprehensive list.

It should have been over for him the moment he mocked disabled journalist Serge Kovaleski in November of 2015 in any reasonable society.

Some more links if anyone needs resources to share with people (don’t give up hope):

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37 points

Every previous election for a long time wapo has endorsed a candidate. The only reason they aren’t is because of the second richest man in the world told them not to.

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11 points
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1880 to 1968, no official endorsements for or against any presidential candidate

1972 anti-Republican endorsement

1976, 80, 84 pro-Democrat endorsements

1988 no endorsement

1992, 96, 00, 04, 08, 12, 16, 20 pro-Democrat endorsements

2024 no endorsement

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16 points

I would consider all but 1 since 1972 to be a long time, it’s longer than I’ve been alive.

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4 points

So they started endorsing the Democrats when the Republicans became a criminal enterprise over half a century ago you mean.

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9 points

I believe not wanting to put the guy back in who did nothing as the Saudi’s bone sawed one of your writers falls into; common sense.

Bozo thought his own op ed was more important than the journalism of his “editorial board”, people who he presumably pays to write opinions. People who are journalists.

He thinks he’s an astronaut and a journalist because he can buy rocket companies and papers, but he’s a clown demonstrating his own lack of understanding of bias in plain English, his paper is worth but the circus music following him.

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17 points
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Every news organisation is biased. The content they choose to emphasize, the time they spend on a subject, who they interview or what they say is all bias. How often they return to it or when it gets covered also show bias.

Bias in news is not automatically bad. Lying or false representation is. Somewhere in the recent past we swallowed some sort of pill making us think news agencies can’t have a stance.

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51 points

Newspapers have a long history of publishing editorials and opinion pieces. Newspapers are rarely, if ever, pure, objective news. Endorsements fall under the editorial content. They are an established tradition.

When the owner dictates that no endorsement should be made because it conflicts with his views, that’s a problem. It’s not the editors with domain knowledge making the call but the self-serving business-man doing it. And it’s not for the good of the paper, it’s for his business interests and personal ideology.

That is the problem.

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18 points

Not even just that, if this decision had been made last January, this wouldn’t be news, but the fact that it was made in the last few days in the run up to the election means that no matter how altruistic their decision was, it’s gonna be viewed in the light of the current moment.

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8 points

All journalism has bias, it’s literally impossible to not have a bias. It’s how the journalist corrects that bias that is important. But understanding that might require nuance that you don’t yet have.

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9 points

I think what I look for is not being unbiased, but being independent. i.e. no conflict of interests, no direct relation with any political entities, not vested in the success of either side. And WaPo has failed that.

And stop pretending both sides are equal. Endorsing Trump is unethical.

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16 points

So freedom of speech really is just a cudgel the right uses against the left? It’s not really something they believe in.

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-12 points
*

Like everybody else I object to what Bezos did, but boycotting the paper isn’t going to tangibly hurt him, financially or in any other way, and it certainly won’t change his behavior. The only people affected will be staffers who get laid off or have their salaries cut because of lost revenue. But hey, at least the social justice angels get to feel good by satisfyingly lashing out, and that’s what really counts, right? The fantasy that they’re fighting for a better world.

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6 points

So do nothing and continue to financially support something you disagree with? Are you a cuck or something?

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-1 points

I believe freedom means everybody gets to have their own opinion, even people I don’t agree with. We should buy things based on their qualities, not based on judging who makes them. Moral perfectionism is a self-serving delusion. But go ahead and polish your halo.

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2 points

Freedom means you can cancel a subscription based on any arbitrary decision you chose. We should buy things based on our freedom to choose, if that means you chose based on quality that’s great and makes sense. If you choose for any reason other than quality, that’s great it’s your money.

How can you not see the fallacy in your own argument?

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13 points
*

When the thing you enjoy and rely on is privately owned, the only way you can express your disappointment is to vote with your dollar.

Edit - the Post has always been too neolib for me to read regularly. I am not a subscriber

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8 points

Who says it’s to hurt him? The man has billions and billions. If he lost nearly all his wealth he’d still be filthy rich. It’s about not consuming news that’s being blatantly influenced by people with power and money.

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-27 points

I for one agree with besos.How tf is this a wrong thing to do ? The press should not tell you to vote for someone. It should report news. Sure it can shit on one person more than the other due to various circumstances. In case of this particular election it would probably be donald trump. Mostly beacuse its hard not to in his case. But the press itself should not endorse someone. But even if they are biased they should be biased in articles they create so that you can at least blame the particular reporter ( because pepole are biased and you cant really avoid that ). Company itself should not endorse certain politiicians.

The only thing i think besos should do better is do it( and annouce ) after this election or somewhere between election cycles. That was a very poor timing on his part.

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2 points

Back when news agencies were trusted, it was very common to respect the opinion of the editorial board as a well considered well informed source. I may not agree with it but I’d know it to have a good argument. It was also always distinct from news. In an “Opinion” section.

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3 points

Editorial boards are independent from newsrooms. They publish all sorts of opinions. That’s the point of the op ed sections of new outlets.

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42 points

On the one hand, I know that the newspaper had done this for decades and stopped now…

On the other hand: If a big German newspaper recommended voting a specific person, this would be a huge scandal…

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2 points

Exactly - I find the comments in this thread very confusing. A free and impartial press is one of the cornerstones of democracy.

I now understand a lot better why there is such a distrust in journalism in the US.

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1 point

I now understand a lot better why there is such a distrust in journalism in the US.

Because Americans aren’t smart enough to realize the difference between a news article and an opinion article?

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19 points

The comparison doesn’t work. In the US it is common practice that a newspaper gives a recommendation.

Also the US has a two party system. Compare this to Germany’s multi party system. If you are undecided between to options a recommendation might help. If you are undecided whether you should vote the Greens or SPD a newspaper recommending CDU doesn’t help you at all.

While it is not illegal for a newspaper to give a recommendation in Germany, it would be a scandal indeed. But the only reason for this would be that they didn’t do it before. People are just complaining about changes like in this case as well

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7 points

Which drives the partisanisation of the media. Bozo is right about one thing: the trust in media is at an all time low in the US and trust is build through accurate and unbiased reporting. Endorsing politicians is biased as hell.

The newspapers repudiation of a fascist in dangerous times would hit that much harder had they not endorsed other politicians in less dangerous times.

So now it’s damned if they do, damned if they don’t… swallow that pill they must at some point. But it would have been an easier pill to swallow after the rule of fascism in the US had been averted.

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4 points

It also would be easier to accept if they were not changing policy immediately before an election, especially one with such serious consequences

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67 points

We have only 2 major parties and one has been a criminal enterprise for 56 years

  • Nixon Watergate
  • Reagan: sold drugs to buy guns for guys Congress said not to buy guns for because they were mass murderers
  • Bush Sr US: helped with above
  • Bush Jr faked evidence for a war which killed half a million people and cost 6 trillion dollars also illegally tortured
  • Trump do I even need to do this one?

At this point Trump wants to form militias to round up 25M people and drag them to concentration camps and turn the military loose on anyone who disagrees.

This includes 11M undocumented workers who almost all live law abiding lives and Americans who were born here from above who are by our constitution citizens regardless of the status of their parents.

He has publically called for violence, and end to our constitution, a new era where the dictator tells the government what the law is.

It is strange for any responsible party not to oppose essentially Hitler.

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19 points

Opposing soneone is not unusual in Germany. Supporting one person or party is what does not happen here.

I’m not a fan of the orange one… Just telling about the German view on this…

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21 points

With 2 parties supporting the other is the only way that you oppose the one.

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1 point

Kind of a weird stance to find opposing someone fine but supporting someone bad. Not accusing anything, I just find that weird thinking.

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7 points

Fwiw, this was always the “op Ed” section, editorial opinion.

I do believe that most reputable news sources historically distinguished facts they reported on from their editors opinion. It’s worth the same as any other well-informed persons opinion.

Of course that also led to Fox “News” and a radically misinformed public, so it certainly went to hell

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14 points
*

Chump change for Bozos. Hardly a scratch

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27 points

I daresay this is the outcome he hoped for. Suddenly there are a bunch of open editorial author seats to fill. Taking bets on those seats being filled by people who don’t lean quite so far to the left.

And a significant loss in subscribers? That’s just the principled people fleeing who weren’t gonna buy his nonsense either way. The people who stick around are the ones who are okay with billionaire interference in their news source, and those are the people Bezos wants as subscribers.

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7 points

😔

Damn, that’s quite plausible.

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13 points

And he doesn’t give a shit. Subscribers don’t matter, control of a well known paper that will push his interests does.

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