Op-Ed: Bezos Is Compromised. He Needs to Give the Post Away

Jeff Bezos' decision to quash a Kamala Harris endorsement from the Washington Post editorial board had nothing to do with restoring trust in the media, writes Steven Waldman at the Columbia Journalism Review. In truth, Bezos' companies have "so much riding on the decisions of the federal government" and the last time former President Trump was mad at the Amazon CEO and Blue Origin founder, "the Pentagon steered a $10 billion contract for cloud computing away from Amazon, according to Amazon itself." Bezos "is simply too financially compromised to be the owner of one of the most important news outlets in America, especially one operating in the nation's capital," concludes Waldman, who suggests the Post owner dump the paper—by donating it to a public charity.

"Cable TV titan HF 'Gerry' Lenfest donated the Philadelphia Inquirer to a charitable trust. Paul Huntsman converted the Salt Lake Tribune to a nonprofit. Nelson Poynter did the same some time ago with the St. Petersburg Times, which is now the Tampa Bay Times and is owned by the Poynter Institute," writes Waldman, noting these moguls' total wealth is less than 1% of Bezos'. "With one ill-timed decision, Jeff Bezos undermined eleven years of positive behavior as a newspaper owner," but this "bold, patriotic move" would be "akin to Andrew Carnegie funding public libraries," writes Waldman. Bezos "could strengthen American journalism and democracy—and restore his reputation as one of the great newspaper owners."

If he were to create a foundation or public charity to house the Post and "an endowment aimed at forever ensuring the newspaper's excellence," Bezos could stop his financial losses with the paper and potentially accept a charitable deduction for the gift, Waldman writes. Meanwhile, the reported 250,000 people who canceled subscriptions might sign back up in the hope of fueling a "truly independent" newspaper, free to express editorial opinions without considering the consequences for its owner's businesses. "If it's in a trust run by an independent board, it can never again be threatened by a president or presidential candidate," Waldman writes. Read the full piece for Waldman's take on how nonprofit news organizations could keep existing independent papers afloat. (More Jeff Bezos stories.)