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Legacy Media Begins Self-Censorship in Preparation for Trump Take Over
This week The Washington Post ⎻ the paper that broke the Watergate scandal, long the symbol of the independence of American media ⎻ buckled under the fear of the looming fascism of Donald Trump.
The paper refused to endorse a candidate for president on the orders of billionaire owner Jeff Bezos; the first time The Post hasn't endorsed a presidential candidate in 36 years. It has been reported that The Post's editorial team had already drafted their endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Following the announcement, several Post columnists, including Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson and former deputy editorial page editor Ruth Marcus, called the decision "a terrible mistake," writing, "This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them ⎻ the precise points The Post made in endorsing Trump’s opponents in 2016 and 2020."
Only days before, the Los Angeles Times also shut down its editorial board on the eve of their Harris endorsement, on the orders of their billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong, who purchased the paper in 2018.
The intervention of the paper's owner to not endorse, despite the L.A. Times endorsing in every election since Barack Obama in 2008, and in every prior election from 1881 to 1972, prompted L.A. Times editorials chief Mariel Garza to resign, setting off a stream of editor resignations in both papers, and a firestorm of subscription cancellations, particularly for The Washington Post, after several celebrities including Mark Hamill and Rob Reiner publicly announced they were cancelling.
"In these dangerous times, staying silent isn’t just indifference, it is complicity," Garza said in an interview with Columbia Journalism Review. "I’m standing up by stepping down from the editorial board. Please accept this as my formal resignation, effective immediately."
Given what has happened this week, it's becoming clear Garza intended her words to be taken literally, not stark cliche. What we are seeing is the first of corporate legacy media hitting self-destruct on free speech on the orders of oligarchs who have spent years cultivating control of the press. It is indeed complicity, not indifference.
This is not to suggest some conspiracy between the billionaire class and Donald Trump to kill the free press in anticipation of a Trump dictatorship (with Elon Musk as the probable exception, as it was reported that Musk is actively suppressing content on X that would hurt Trump's chances at victory). When journalism is swallowed by capitalism, free press is held to a cost-benefit analysis: if maintaining free press comes up against keeping the dollars coming in, the billionaire will choose the latter every time.
But something is deeper and uglier about the The Post and L.A. Times reactions to a potential Trump win. After decades of propping up Donald Trump and capitalizing on his image as a "successful" businessman, and then as an unmissable train-wreck candidate that was good for ratings, media companies are now battening down the hatches for what they perceive as the coming storm in his second term.
Right on schedule, Donald Trump came out with an announcement that arrests would begin of his political enemies after his election in a post on Truth Social. Trump warned that he intends to pursue mass arrests and severe legal action against anyone he believes is involved in "cheating" or "skullduggery" in U.S. elections. This list extends beyond traditional candidates to include lawyers, political donors, election officials, and "illegal voters."
The list of those who could face legal action under Trump’s proposed post-election crackdown includes anyone he deems involved in "unscrupulous behavior" and "corrupt" activity, hinting at a broad interpretation of election-related offenses. As MeidasTouch editor-in-chief Ron Filipkowski states, "If you use his 2020 standard, that would mean people like Ruby Freeman, Shaye Moss, Marc Elias, Zuckerberg, and hundred of others would be jailed."
If maintaining the free press means facing violent backlash from the muscle of the state, the complicit will preemptively silence themselves.
Earlier this week, former NBC marketing executive John Miller wrote an op-ed apologizing for his portrayal of Donald Trump as a successful businessman while working on "The Apprentice." Miller admitted the image of Trump as a titan of business was purely for ratings and said point blank, "I helped create a monster."
Those who have long criticized legacy media for their complicity in Trump's rise; their seemingly incomprehensible and enduringly low standards for covering his career as a president and as a candidate, have often lamented out loud that these so-called journalists couldn't be serious. Don't they know that if Trump wins they will be the first on the line of Trump's violent vengeance campaign?
It's now clear that the heads of these media companies weren't stupid, as we all assumed. They simply had a fail-safe in their back pocket the whole time. If things got really bad in the face of Trump fascism, they would simply disavow that they ever stood for free speech whatsoever.
Or, what is more likely in the case of Musk and Bezos: they are leveraging the media they control for deals in a Trump-led government to benefit their other companies. Not 24 hours after Jeff Bezos' The Washington Post declined to endorse Kamala Harris, Trump met with executives from Blue Origen, the space exploration company owned by, yes, Bezos, possibly in a move to challenge Musk's Space X for control of lucrative government contracts for the next wave of space travel.
Decades of forced marriage between billionaires and the free press, from Ted Turner and Rupert Murdoch, to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, has resulted in a reality few could have expected until it was here mere days from the possible election of Donald Trump to his dark second term: the free press is voluntarily shutting down. And if the election doesn't go the right way, they are shutting down for good.
It's been said that democracy dies in darkness.
