Spot-on, Bob, as always. I was particularly pissed at the hopelessly lame justification Bezos offered the other day, where in the first paragraph he used the word "we" in relation to WaPo journalists. Bezos is the farthest thing possible from a journalist: he's a capitalist who has now shown his true colors ... and the predominant hue in his flag is yellow.
The irony of a paper whose motto is "Democracy dies in darkness" going dark at the hand of its timorous owner is almost unbearable.
So I’m currently a long time digital subscriber to The Washington Post who’s now VERY tempted to cancel my subscription over this dangerous fiasco perpetrated by Bezos. The only thing that gives me pause is my wish to continue supporting the highly competent journalists who remain on the Post staff. Thoughts anyone?
Same here. My initial reaction was to cancel ... but I decided to hang in for a while. There are still solidly informative voices there (David Ignatius, among many others), so I'll stick with it for a while. From what I've read, Bezos is losing something like $70 million a year on the Post anyway, so I'm not sure that 200,000 cancellations will sway him. A more effective protest might be to cancel any Amazon subscriptions, but in a marketplace increasingly devoid of viable options, that's a tough one for those of us who live far from the mainstream. It's a conundrum, all right...
There are other outlets offering quality news and commentary, NYT being one. Bezos understands that while Democracy Dies in Darkness, Newspapers Die Without readers. Speak the language he understands.
I cancelled my decades long subscription to WSJ when Murdoch bought it. I cancelled my long-standing subscription to WaPo when Bezos hired the ethically suspect Murdoch henchman Will Lewis as publisher. I'm a little sorry I didn't wait so that I could notch it up to 200,001 cancellations.
Bezos is smart enough to know that quality news is relatively easy to come by. For instance I continue to subscribe to NYT and Reuters and read AP daily. What makes WaPo and its ilk worth the price of a subscription is carefully curated opinion pages and "secondary" content.
If we were engaged in a fairly normal election the decision not to endorse might be supportable. This is as abnormal an election as I can imagine. Shirking the responsibility of a thought leader at this juncture is inexplicable and unacceptable.
I hope that Bezos recognizes that he lacks the fortitude to own a major newspaper and finds a buyer.
Spot-on, Bob, as always. I was particularly pissed at the hopelessly lame justification Bezos offered the other day, where in the first paragraph he used the word "we" in relation to WaPo journalists. Bezos is the farthest thing possible from a journalist: he's a capitalist who has now shown his true colors ... and the predominant hue in his flag is yellow.
The irony of a paper whose motto is "Democracy dies in darkness" going dark at the hand of its timorous owner is almost unbearable.
Just the tip of the iceberg should Trump win and his oligarch buddies get to run the country with Trump as their puppet.
So I’m currently a long time digital subscriber to The Washington Post who’s now VERY tempted to cancel my subscription over this dangerous fiasco perpetrated by Bezos. The only thing that gives me pause is my wish to continue supporting the highly competent journalists who remain on the Post staff. Thoughts anyone?
Same here. My initial reaction was to cancel ... but I decided to hang in for a while. There are still solidly informative voices there (David Ignatius, among many others), so I'll stick with it for a while. From what I've read, Bezos is losing something like $70 million a year on the Post anyway, so I'm not sure that 200,000 cancellations will sway him. A more effective protest might be to cancel any Amazon subscriptions, but in a marketplace increasingly devoid of viable options, that's a tough one for those of us who live far from the mainstream. It's a conundrum, all right...
There are other outlets offering quality news and commentary, NYT being one. Bezos understands that while Democracy Dies in Darkness, Newspapers Die Without readers. Speak the language he understands.
I cancelled my decades long subscription to WSJ when Murdoch bought it. I cancelled my long-standing subscription to WaPo when Bezos hired the ethically suspect Murdoch henchman Will Lewis as publisher. I'm a little sorry I didn't wait so that I could notch it up to 200,001 cancellations.
Bezos is smart enough to know that quality news is relatively easy to come by. For instance I continue to subscribe to NYT and Reuters and read AP daily. What makes WaPo and its ilk worth the price of a subscription is carefully curated opinion pages and "secondary" content.
If we were engaged in a fairly normal election the decision not to endorse might be supportable. This is as abnormal an election as I can imagine. Shirking the responsibility of a thought leader at this juncture is inexplicable and unacceptable.
I hope that Bezos recognizes that he lacks the fortitude to own a major newspaper and finds a buyer.