John Solomon, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of Just the News, said news outlets are refraining from endorsing candidates in this year’s presidential election at a time when Americans are “craving” unbiased news.
Earlier this month, a Gallup poll found that just 31 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to report the news “fully, accurately and fairly.”
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post, pointed to the recent Gallup poll in an op-ed published on Monday explaining why the outlet has decided to not make an endorsement in this year’s presidential race:
Let me give an analogy. Voting machines must meet two requirements. They must count the vote accurately, and people must believe they count the vote accurately. The second requirement is distinct from and just as important as the first.
Likewise with newspapers. We must be accurate, and we must be believed to be accurate. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but we are failing on the second requirement. Most people believe the media is biased.…
Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence.
In addition to the Washington Post, other outlets including USA Today and the Los Angeles Times have also decided to not endorse a candidate in this year’s presidential election.
Solomon said Bezos’ decision to not have the Washington Post make an endorsement this year appears to be a “first step” in acknowledging the rift between journalists and Americans.
“I think Jeff Bezos said out loud what a lot of people in the traditional media have been saying privately for several months to me, which is we’ve got to stop this slide of credibility. You have to stop this loss of trust from the American people, and this may be a first step towards at least acknowledging the problem. Fixing it is going to require fixing the newsrooms, not just the endorsement process,” Solomon explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Solomon added that the Gallup poll is a “warning sign” to the media industry “that they’ve lost touch with the very people that are supposed to be their consumers.”
Solomon went on to explain that Americans’ trust in the media has declined as journalists have taken on a “big brother” role by believing they are “smarter than the American public” and that they must “guide them to the right place.”
“Americans just want to get facts and be trusted to make up their own mind. I think there has been a big brother mindset in the media and ivory tower big brother that ‘we reporters are smarter than the American public, and we need to guide them to the right place.’ That’s the wrong sentiment. It’s the wrong sentiment. The American people are so wise, they know what’s going on. They may be busy. They may not know all the granular details of politics, but they got what’s going on and they’re going to show that again in this election in a week,” Solomon said.
Going back to the Washington Post not endorsing a presidential candidate, Solomon said the outlet’s decision is essentially a business decision that will hurt the company in the short term, but may end up benefiting the company in terms of increased credibility down the road.
“I think [Bezos] understands that just to have a valuable brand, getting back to the center, getting back to centrist neutral coverage is something that’s good business for the Washington Post, particularly in a capital that has two different parties in it. I think he’s willing to bite the bullet short term to create a brand that has trust in 100 percent of the country, not 50 percent of the country,” Solomon explained.
“That can happen over time, but it’s going to be painful for a while,” Solomon added.
Solomon said Bezos has an opportunity to “rebrand” the Washington Post just as Elon Musk had done with X, formerly Twitter.
“It’s going to take some time, but it’s not unlike what Elon Musk had to do at Twitter and look how quickly once you get the right bodies and the right people and the right mindset, the right business modeling, look how successful X has become as a rebranded entity. Jeff Bezos can do something similar,” Solomon said.
Watch the full interview:
Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “John Solomon” by Real America’s Voice.
