Post and L.A. Times needed to endorse Harris

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong look like they're trying to appease Trump.

If Donald Trump returns to the Whitehouse and leads the United States down the road to fascism, history will remember Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos and Los Angeles Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong as the Neville Chamberlains of the 21^st century.

Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister in the run-up to World War II, adopted a disastrous position of “appeasement” toward Adolph Hitler that ignored or soft-pedaled Hitler’s plan to conquer Europe and, eventually, the rest of the world.

Last week, in similar fashion, Bezos and Soon-Shiong ignored Trump’s promise to replace American democracy with policies that, if carried out, will establish an ultra-right wing authoritarian government. Bezos and Soon-Shiong refused to let their publications endorse a candidate for president. Their edicts left their editorial boards unable to take a stand in the most important presidential election in over a century. The owners offered a shameful lesson in cowardice and dereliction of duty that will cost both publications subscribers and credibility. Worse, their actions will reduce their ability to inform readers when trust and belief in traditional media is already shrinking, often being sabotaged by propagandists posing as journalists.  

The editorial board silence at the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times at this crossroads of American history clearly benefits Trump. He has a 50-50 chance of winning the 2024 election, according to polls. Bezos’ and Soon-Shiong’s refusals to endorse for president reeks of appeasement of a wannabe dictator by a couple of rich guys trying to hedge their bets and maintain their personal wealth and power. Appeasing Trump puts the rest of the country at risk.

The news business is supposed to report facts and tell the truth. Editorial pages are supposed to place those facts and that truth in a context that explains the consequences for the public. That’s how journalism serves democracy: by courageously telling the truth and what it means.

Acting like it is not important to endorse in this election reduces false equivalence to absurdity. Trump is a pathological liar, an angry man who still says widespread election fraud cost him the 2020 presidential election despite 60 court cases debunking his claim. Trump is a man who once told members of his staff that he longed for generals as loyal as Hitler’s. He still insists he did nothing wrong by instigating the violent, deadly Capitol attack by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump’s insurrectionists intended to stop the peaceful transfer of power. But Trump calls the attackers patriots. He says he will pardon those in prison if elected.

In his current campaign, Trump’s constant lies (Haitian immigrants eat house pets) blend with contempt and hate.  Forget the Constitution, Trump will use the presidency to persecute and prosecute his personal critics. Forget service members’ sacrifices, the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor. Trump blames undocumented immigrants for everything from violent crime to stealng jobs to high home prices to failing schools. He brags of plans that will use taxpayer dollars to pay law enforcement and the military to round up and deport 20 million undocumented immigrants (not as bad as Hitler’s “ultimate solution” for Jewish people, but still a master class in scapegoating).

Trump says he will use the U.S. military and federal justice system to control the “enemies within.” Those enemies include anyone who criticizes him, but they especially target political opponents like Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, against whom he now runs, and sitting President Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.

In addition to all of this, Trump’s record in 2024 includes the following:

- Civil judgments for sexual assault and tax fraud, along with felony convictions for cooking the books to hide hush money paid to a former mistress in order to mislead voters in the 2016 presidential election.

- Indictments for instigating the Capitol attack, trying to change 11,780 votes in Georgia in 2020 in order to steal the U.S. election, and charges of illegally retaining classified documents after he left the presidency.

Trump’s threat to democracy demands an editorial endorsement of Harris if for no other reason than that the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times understand the scope of Trump’s corruption better than the public. Their reporters helped expose it.

In September 1938, Neville Chamberlain appeased Adolph Hitler by trusting the Fuhrer’s promise that the Nazis would end their nation-building after taking over Austria and Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland. The Nazis then proceeded to seize all of Czechoslovakia and moved on to invade Poland. Eventually, the fascists ran roughshod over most of Europe, including occupying France and bombing England.

Hitler lied to Chamberlain. That’s what megalomaniacs do. Trying to appease them only empowers them to seek more power.

Donald Trump normalized lying in his first term as president – the Washington Post identified more than 30,000 untrue quotes and statements. These days, Trump lies openly at almost every campaign rally.  He lies to justify an authoritarian agenda. His ability to do so without consequence has put truth in American politics on life support.  

Jeff Bezos’ and Patrick Soon-Shiong’s decision not to endorse someone other than Trump in 2024 moves truth in politics one step closer to hospice care.