Thread by @kurteichenwald

As someone who has been a journalist for almost 40 year, working as a senior writer at the New York Times, Newsweek, etc, the decision by @WilliamLewis, a Murdoch alum, to cripple the @washingtonpost by abandoning endorsements, is one of the most craven actions I've ever seen../1

...taken in the industry. Make no mistake, this wasn't just cowardice. It was @WilliamLewis and perhaps @JeffBezos dragging a now-once great paper into the sewer because of their own political beliefs. If Lewis et al wanted to abandon endorsements, fine. But you don't do it.../2

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos ...days one of the most consequential elections in history. We have on one side a convicted felon, deemed an ignorant fascist by his own people, who half this country believes is, in fact, a fascist, and on the other side a woman half the country believes is a communist.../3

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos ...the @washingtonpost could have laid out the reality in an endorsement. Would it have persuaded either side? Probably not. But maybe a few. But it would have been the @washingtonpost weighing in on an election that will undoubtedly be historic. Instead, it is an action.../4

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost ...that tarnish the @washingtonpost for decades to come. While not the same, it will have the same long-term impact that the New York Time's publication of Walter Duranty's articles aping the propaganda of Joseph Stalin in the 1930s. Alll @WilliamLewis had to do was wait few../5

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost ...days until after the election to announce that this was the last endorsement the paper would ever make. Fine. Instead, this Murdoch alum decided now, when the paper was going to endorse the person he does not support, to make his "vote" on Trump to destroy the editorial....

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost ...board and the @washingtonpost. It is a small act, but after untold number of years as a subscriber, I have canceled my subscription. I will miss the great news reporting, the insights of @JRubinBlogger, @RuthMarcus, @Eugene_Robinson and so much more. But I can not....

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost @JRubinBlogger @RuthMarcus @Eugene_Robinson ...in any way support a publication that has so thoroughly lost its way. Plus, I cannot fully express the admiration I have for @davidjshipley , but David, it is time to resign. With your talent, you can get a job anywhere, but remaining at the @washingtonpost will be seen by...

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost @JRubinBlogger @RuthMarcus @Eugene_Robinson @davidjshipley ...history as a tacit endorsement of this knee-capping of journalism, and of allowing the business side of the paper to dictate the news and editorial judgement. How can we ever trust anything the @washingtonpost publishes ever again? Is it the news, or is it the...

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost @JRubinBlogger @RuthMarcus @Eugene_Robinson @davidjshipley ...political opinion of @JeffBezos and @WilliamLewis? How much manipulation of the once-independent news and editorial sides have from a business side that is so craven and uncommitted to the greatest standards of journalism? When I was at there @nytimes, I wrote a series of...

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost @JRubinBlogger @RuthMarcus @Eugene_Robinson @davidjshipley @nytimes ...investigative pieces that exposed corruption and incompetence of a prominent business executive. I didnt know - this man was a member of the @nytimes board. He went to A.O. Sulzberger to complain and demand that he stop me. AOS said, essentially, "sucks to be you" and never...

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost @JRubinBlogger @RuthMarcus @Eugene_Robinson @davidjshipley @nytimes ...said a word to me. The executive then went to the editor of the business section to stop me. He replied "tough titty." No one ever said a word to me. No one blocked anything I was writing. It was only after I was done, after the business editor asked me if I might have other..

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost @JRubinBlogger @RuthMarcus @Eugene_Robinson @davidjshipley @nytimes ...pieces (I said no) that I was told that the executive was a member of the Times's board, and his efforts to get my editor and Sulzberger to stop me, and of their refusal. THAT is journalism, @JeffBezos and Matt Lewis. What you have done is self-serving editorial corruption...

@WilliamLewis @JeffBezos @washingtonpost @JRubinBlogger @RuthMarcus @Eugene_Robinson @davidjshipley @nytimes ...there is nothing those of us committed to journalism can do other than rage into the night. But the @washingtonpost can no longer be trusted as an independent news organization. And so, join me: Express the only protest you can. Cancel your subscription.
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