250,000 readers of The Washington Post have canceled their subscriptions in the aftermath of the newspaper’s abrupt announcement that its editorial page would no longer be endorsing presidential candidates, both in this 2024 election and future elections as well. The Post reports it accounts for about 10 percent of its digital subscribers.
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, also owner of Amazon, defended the decision this week and nearly one third of the Post’s editorial board stepped down Monday in protest.
Faculty experts at the George Washington University are available to offer insight, analysis and commentary in the fallout of The Post’s non-endorsement of political candidates, including topics related to journalistic integrity and the role of journalism in elections. If you would like to speak with an expert, please contact GW Senior Media Relations Specialist Cate Douglass Restuccio at [email protected].
Jesse J. Holland, the associate director and associate professor at the GW School of Media and Public Affairs, is an award-winning journalist and the author of the first novel featuring comics’ most popular black superhero, The Black Panther. Holland is a former Race & Ethnicity writer for The Associated Press, having been recognized as one of the few reporters to be credentialed to cover all three branches of the American government during his career: the White House, the Supreme Court and Congress.
Holland has said that in the end, it’s Jeff Bezos’ newspaper and he can do what he wants with his newspaper. However, what he can’t buy is the trust of his readers. More of his commentary can be found here.
Frank Sesno, Director of Strategic Initiatives and professor at the GW School of Media and Public Affairs, is an Emmy-award winning journalist whose journalism career spanned four decades and put him at the reporting forefront of major events including presidential campaigns and debates, superpower summits, and conflicts worldwide. Sesno’s diverse journalistic career includes more than two decades at CNN as a White House correspondent, anchor, Sunday talk show host, Washington Bureau Chief, and Special Correspondent. While serving in those roles, he covered presidential campaigns and political conventions, superpower summits, arms negotiations, conflicts in the Middle East and Latin America, and major historical events such as the impeachment of Bill Clinton, the 9/11 terror attacks and Barack Obama’s historic inauguration as America’s first Black president in 2009.
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