SHOULD THE WASHINGTON POST STAFF ENDORSE HARRIS ON THEIR OWN?

Will a Free Press Indeed Prevail?

The idea of the Post employees making a collective endorsement of Harris on their own has been floated. I somewhat like this idea - not because it would be an endorsement of Harris, but of something much larger: it would be an endorsement of freedom of the press.

If the Washington Post employees who have threatened to quit “were valuable in [their] own right, [they] would collectively endorse Harris without the imprimatur of the newspaper and it would be just as important,” wrote @librarianofcelaeno on Substack.

The comment section on his piece quickly degenerated into “media bashing” along the lines of “Bezos should fire them all and tell them not to let the door hit their backsides on the way out.”

But what all of us as AMERICANS must understand is that the issue at stake here isn’t “liberal versus conservative.” It’s whether a government (or in this case the potential leader of that government) has the right to bully media institutions into submission. Trump has done this so often (even to Bezos regarding Amazon in the past) that it cannot be ignored as “Trump talk” or something that “he really wouldn’t do.”

When I wrote the series “Which Will Prevail: Trumpism or a Free Press?” I did not expect that the issues it raised would make themselves so explicitly apparent during the final days of this election. In Part One it is argued that the press should stand up for itself and not just be a punching bag for Trump. Part One argues that Trump’s assault on the media should be covered by the press as though it were an “act of war” against the United States – however, in this case as an “act of war” against the liberal democratic VALUES of the United States.

A collective endorsement by Post employees of Kamala Harris would be an endorsement of this larger cause.

And there is another endorsement to be made. @librarianofcelaeno also said, “None [of these Post employees] - NONE- could hack it on Substack as anons ... as I and others have noted time and again their organic engagement is pathetic compared to what authors [on Substack] who’ve carved their own path can produce.”

I do not share @librarianofcelaeno’s evaluation of the Post reporters, but I do share the sentiment he expressed about YOU on Substack and similar platforms. YOU must get to work and make your “collective endorsement” specifically on this issue regarding Bezos and press freedom; and also on the wider issue of countering authoritarianism in the last days of this campaign. This is no time to be sitting on the sidelines or to just throw out a few pejorative comments about Donald Trump. Approach the end of this election and its aftermath with the solemnity and seriousness it requires, and elevate the power of your public voice to defend our constitutional freedoms.

Part One of Which Will Prevail: Trumpism or a Free Press? argues WHY we must do this. We Are All the Media Now explains HOW we can do it.

Click here to access Safeguard and more ways you can get involved in protecting our Constitution and democracy