No matter who wins the election — but especially if it is Trump, with his vows of retribution and his history of norm-busting — we’re entering another period where the institutions of a free society are going to be tested: courts, bureaucracies, advocacy groups, law enforcement and news media. During the Trump presidency, a lot of the same institutions embraced their role as guardrails of democracy. But there’s no reason it would have to be that way a second time. I’ve written before that Washington’s psychology may look a lot different in a second Trump era, motivating many former stalwarts to turn turtle.
If that’s what happened at the Post, it’s a pretty grim first whiff of what may lie ahead.
Regarding the Los Angeles Times:
A decision by the owner of the Los Angeles Times not to endorse in the 2024 presidential race — after the paper’s board proposed backing Kamala Harris — has created a tempest, prompting three members of The Times editorial board to resign and provoking thousands of readers to cancel their subscriptions.
Times owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong said that his decision not to offer readers a recommendation would be less divisive in a tumultuous election year.
“I have no regrets whatsoever. In fact, I think it was exactly the right decision,” he said in an interview with The Times on Friday afternoon. “The process was [to decide]: how do we actually best inform our readers? And there could be nobody better than us who try to sift the facts from fiction” while leaving it to readers to make their own final decision.He said he feared picking one candidate would only exacerbate the already deep divisions in the country.
Translated into English, HE FEARED. His decision was exclusively based on FEAR. This is the owner/operator of an enterprise that buys INK by the barrel.
How and why would a cash hoarding BILLIONAIRE be cowed by Trump? Hint: in the Wikipedia article about him, the section on philanthropy says:
A 2017 Politico report found that Soon-Shiong's research foundation, the Chan Soon-Shiong NantHealth Foundation, which he named after his wife, had spent over 70% on businesses and non-profit organizations that he controlled. Furthermore, it found that most of its grants were awarded to organizations that have business dealings with Soon-Shiong's companies. The Foundation also paid some employees from Soon-Shiong's companies, which is a potentially inappropriate use of charitable funds to cover unrelated business overhead.[27]
Both WaPo and LATimes were cowed, in the face of threats by Trump.
IF you have not already, VOTE.
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