- Jeff Bezos just lately determined to cease presidential endorsements by the Washington Post.
- In leaked messages, Amazon workers are divided, with some supporting his name.
Jeff Bezos’s latest determination to cease presidential endorsements by the Washington Post sparked a backlash that misplaced the newspaper greater than 250,000 subscriptions.
The WaPo state of affairs has additionally change into a hot-button situation amongst some workers inside Amazon, the corporate Bezos based and ran till 2021, in accordance with dozens of inside Slack messages obtained by Business Insider.
While a number of Amazon workers criticized the change, some employees supported Bezos’s controversial name.
One employee counseled Bezos for being prepared to share his perspective whereas noting that the timing of his opinion piece was not splendid. This individual wrote that it is the kind of management transparency that Amazon has been lacking since Bezos’s departure in 2021, citing the corporate’s latest determination to carry workers again into the workplace with out sufficient clarification.
“These are issues I anticipate a pacesetter to do,” the worker wrote in one of many Slack messages obtained by BI. “I’m beginning to notice that the majority leaders aren’t like this.”
Another Amazon employee wrote that Bezos ought to have extra right-leaning editorials within the Post to cut back the notion of bias.
Bezos drew a firestorm of criticism after the Washington Post, the publication he is owned since 2013, introduced final week that it might cease endorsing presidential candidates going ahead. The Washington Post has lengthy endorsed Democratic candidates, and a few noticed the transfer as a method to curry favor with Donald Trump in case he wins subsequent month’s US election.
Spokespeople at Amazon and Washington Post did not reply to requests for touch upon Wednesday.
‘Credibility enhance’
Bezos, in an opinion piece on Monday, stated there was “no quid professional quo of any type” in his determination and stated he’s towards presidential endorsements as a result of they “do nothing to tip the scales of an election” and solely create “a notion of bias.”
Some Amazon workers agreed, in accordance with the Slack messages obtained by BI.
“If any information group stopped endorsing candidates, I’d be extra inclined to provide them a learn as a result of I’d view that as a credibility enhance,” one employee wrote.
Other Amazon workers stated it was “foolish” and “unhappy” to see so many Washington Post readers cancel their subscriptions over the endorsement situation. They stated these readers have been solely prepared to simply accept information articles that conform to their political opinions, stopping them from seeing a wider world.
“These biases result in a distortion of what’s really taking place (each on the left and the best) and I feel is unhealthy for the nation,” one of many Amazon staffers wrote.
‘Suspicious and worrisome’
Still, a few of Amazon workers who weighed in on the corporate’s inside Slack have been suspicious of Bezos’s true motivation.
These employees stated the timing of the choice, coming weeks earlier than the election, was regarding. One worker referred to as it “suspicious and worrisome.”
Trump is main some election polls and has a historical past of enjoying favorites as president, which provides Bezos a “clear justification” to shrink back from any sort of endorsement, one of many workers wrote.
“If they proceed to not endorse individuals because the years go by, then possibly I’ll settle for this because the inflection level of a brand new coverage,” one other Amazon employee wrote. “As it’s now, I do not purchase this editorial.”
Other Amazon workers have been extra blunt, saying they have been going to cancel their very own Washington Post subscriptions. One staffer wrote that it was “unthinkable” for the Post to not endorse a presidential candidate, on condition that “endorsements are a major operate of print journalism.”
“Disappointing, see ya WaPo — now not a high 3 useful resource for me, in case your directive is to prop your house owners pursuits,” one other Amazon worker wrote.
‘Not proper for a enterprise’
Some workers had a snarkier view, pointing to the truth that Blue Origin’s CEO Dave Limp met with Trump on the identical day of WaPo’s determination. Bezos owns Blue Origin, an area firm that works intently with the federal government. Bezos stated in his op-ed that the assembly was impromptu and had no connection to the endorsement.
Other workers supplied some potential options for Bezos. One individual advised the Post write two separate opinion items endorsing every candidate, and letting the readers determine.
Some workers in contrast Bezos’s remarks to latest feedback by Amazon cloud CEO Matt Garman, who confronted backlash after saying 9 out of 10 workers he is talked to are excited in regards to the firm’s push to return to the workplace full time.
One worker criticized Bezos and Garman for presenting opinions as info.
“Presenting their opinions as truth is just not proper,” this individual wrote. “It’s not proper for a enterprise and it is not in keeping with the ‘nice duty’ precept that we’re ‘supposed’ to observe.”
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