https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/10/28/jeff-bezos-washington-post-trust/
Likewise with newspapers. We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be
accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second
requirement. Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see
this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose.
Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our
long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact),
but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must
work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.
Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No
undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with
Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually
do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending
them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one. Eugene Meyer,
publisher of The Washington Post from 1933 to 1946, thought the same, and he
was right. By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not
enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in
the right direction. I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a
moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was
inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy.