Liberals are incensed over the decision by the editorial boards of The Washington Post, The L.A. Times, and USA Today to not endorse Kamala Harris for president. The decisions have provoked endless reporting and commentary across the media, while editorial board members have resigned and hundreds of thousands of readers have canceled their subscriptions.
Defending the decision, Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, noted in an Oct. 28 op-ed that this year Gallup found that the journalistic profession “is now the least trusted of all.” Presidential endorsements, Bezos argues, “do nothing to tip the scales of an election” but rather “create a perception of bias.” Refraining from endorsing a presidential candidate is thus “a meaningful step in the right direction” to restore the integrity of corporate media in the eyes of the American media.
Yet for a profession with such a tarnished reputation, obvious bias, and even, dare I say, descent into corruption to ensure certain political outcomes, these decisions are more than just too little, too late. They are disingenuous and patently unserious. For corporate media to get serious about journalistic professionalism, they’d have to fire more than half their staff.
Endorsements Are Nothing But Window Dressing For Leftist Media
One would perhaps be able to place more stock in editorial boards allegedly taking the high road of professionalism if their publications weren’t so obviously biased in favor of the Democrat Party. To wit, the very same weekend WaPo declared they would not endorse a presidential candidate, they featured pieces attacking prominent Trump-supporter Elon Musk, maligning Trump’s speaking style, and accusing Trump of trying to take over the D.C. police force. The majority of their columnists are leftists, and, as I’ve previously argued based on almost three decades of reading The Post, it pushes reporting in every section — be it Metro, Style, Sports, or Business — that aligns with the agenda of the Democrat Party. WaPo, similar to The L.A. Times, doesn’t need to publicly endorse Harris — its coverage is so obviously biased in her favor and against the GOP as to be plain to the most casual of observers.
Indeed, since the WaPo’s declaration of “neutrality,” it has featured op-eds by liberal columnists Karen Attiah, Karen Tumulty, Dana Milbank, Ruth Marcus, and even its resident “humor columnist” Alexandra Petri criticizing the decision and reiterating the expected pablum about Trump being a fascist, the GOP being a threat to democracy, and Harris being the savior of democracy. One looks in vain for a single op-ed arguing that perhaps, to some degree, the American people are right, and corporate media are part of the problem.
Moreover, in an incredible bout of navel-gazing, The Post has published extensive reporting on how people, including its own staff, are reacting to its decision. How narcissistic can one get? Corporate media seem to spend as much time talking about themselves as they do, well, the news. In their self-worshipping minds, it would seem, they are the news.
It’s Beyond Bias — We’re Talking Corruption
Yet to speak of leftist corporate media as simply being biased in favor of one political party over another does not do justice to the true nature of its unethical character — it is decidedly corrupt. Every day, to visit the websites of the WaPo, L.A. Times, or New York Times, or to turn on CNN or MSNBC, is to be inundated with an overpowering flood of leftist reporting aimed at ensuring a certain political outcome in the November election. “Fact checking,” that supposedly scientific method for evaluating political speech, is a tool asymmetrically deployed to malign Republicans while excusing Democrats’ deception and malfeasance.
Though we’ve certainly surpassed the need to cite examples, I’ll name a few. Corporate media have openly decided to report favorably on, among other things, abortion, transgender activists, and illegal immigration. Their “straight news” routinely attacks conservative Christians while celebrating leftist ideologues, with the goal of opening the Overton Window in favor of the most extreme leftist causes, such as its promotion of gay marriage and then trans identity. And they refuse to take seriously widespread concerns with election integrity, despite years of evidence-based reporting from such journalists as Mollie Hemingway, and Mark Zuckerberg publicly acknowledging social media yielding to Democrat pressure. Anything that might threaten the credential class’s hold on power is flippantly labeled “disinformation.”
It would not be too much to argue that leftist corporate media, in their decades-long pro-Democrat campaigning, have severely undermined the integrity of our republican regime. Its key participation in the Russia collusion hoax, coverage of the 2020 election, the pandemic, and the “mostly peaceful” BLM riots grossly misled the American people, curtailing our rights, harming an entire generation of youth, excusing the destruction of billions of dollars in property damage, and strengthening the power of the administrative state. Its blatantly politicized attacks on Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett have undermined the credibility of our nation’s highest court. Alternatively, its comparative unwillingness to report on stories that damage the image of elite institutions, such as the academy, federal bureaucracy, and Big Tech, ensure the continued exploitative dominance of our unaccountable technocratic regime.
Corporate Media Needs to Clean House
If legacy media were sincere about rebuilding their reputation, it will take more than a hamfisted non-endorsement of Kamala Harris less than two weeks before the election, after having spent every day since her Aug. 5 nomination celebrating her as the savior of American democracy from an allegedly fascist Donald Trump. As Bill Maher has argued, the media’s non-endorsement is a non-issue, its influence negligible. For newspaper editorials are merely one minor manifestation of a powerful political machine driven by tens of thousands of journalists who are predominantly leftist and Democrat. Journalists report not on “the news” as such in some neutral, disinterested manner to inform the American people — rather, they carefully craft endless amounts of content intended to influence public thinking in favor of the Democratic Party and liberal ideology (just look at their messaging since Roe was overturned).
To regain America’s trust, legacy corporate media will have to do more than offer performative gestures pretending they are suddenly interested in objectivity and neutrality. No, if The Washington Post and L.A. Times were really serious, they’d have to fire more than half their staffs. I’m happy to provide them names.
