Hey all,
Unfortunately this isn’t anything fun. 2024 has been rough. But this is I think more important.
If you live in the United States, you probably know about the political tumult and the very real threat to our democratic institutions. Nearly every large platform has come out with a statement endorsing one candidate or another. Oftentimes this represents a fundamental ideological difference that I don’t believe I have the type or size of platform to talk about meaningfully. But in this case, the Washington Post - one of our largest national newspapers - was prevented from publishing a political endorsement by its owner, Jeff Bezos. You may know Bezos as the ultra-rich and exploitative founder of Amazon.
As a result, reportedly hundreds of thousands of subscribers to the Washington Post have canceled their subscriptions. Nowadays, media outlets like newspapers make a significant amount of their operating budgets from subscription fees. Regardless of the percentage of budget that comes from subscriptions, the subscriptions also serve as an indicator of readership and reach. We know that the staff of the paper are not the ones who chose to pull this article and in fact it appears that many of them are as frustrated as their readers are. While wholly understandable to pull away and “punish” the paper for this decision, this punishes the staff of the paper and may threaten the ability of the Washington Post to operate with the kind of political independence and integrity that we want our reporters to maintain.
So here is the message I want to share: keep your WaPo subscription if you have one. If you already cancelled, please consider re-subscribing. If you were considering buying one, please don’t change your mind because of this incident. There are better ways to lodge our mass complaints in ways that don’t have a greater impact on the wellbeing of a well-respected paper and its staff than on the person whose actions we object to.
For example, we could start a challenge to refuse to engage with Amazon on the week of the election. Spend no money. Watch no Prime. Don’t open any Kindle files. Don’t even open the apps. Amazon is where most of Bezos’ wealth comes from and his financial wellbeing is strongly tied to its shares. His wealth comes from our willingness to use his products, and his actions can have financial consequences.
What do you think? Should we spread the word?
