Jeff Bezos breaks silence as staffers revolt at WaPo, subscribers reportedly flee

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos penned an op-ed defending the paper’s “principled decision” in not endorsing a presidential candidate in the 2024 race.

Bezos began the piece Monday by citing a Gallup poll showing Americans losing trust in the media, even falling below Congress, telling readers “Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.”

“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,” Bezos wrote. “Most people believe the media is biased. Anyone who doesn’t see this is paying scant attention to reality, and those who fight reality lose. Reality is an undefeated champion. It would be easy to blame others for our long and continuing fall in credibility (and, therefore, decline in impact), but a victim mentality will not help. Complaining is not a strategy. We must work harder to control what we can control to increase our credibility.”

WASHINGTON POST REPORTS LIBERALS ARE CANCELING SUBSCRIPTIONS OVER PAPER’S DECISION NOT TO ENDORSE VP HARRIS

WASHINGTON POST OWNER JEFF BEZOS WANTS MORE CONSERVATIVE OPINION WRITERS AT PAPER: REPORT

The billionaire Amazon founder, who bought The Post in 2013, insisted that newspaper endorsements “do nothing to tip the scales of an election” but instead “create a perception of bias.” He doubled down on The Post’s decision to end its presidential endorsements by saying it’s “principled decision, and it’s the right one.”

“By itself, declining to endorse presidential candidates is not enough to move us very far up the trust scale, but it’s a meaningful step in the right direction. I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it. That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy,” Bezos conceded. 

Bezos denied there was any “quid pro quo” that motivated the decision and insisted the meeting the boss of his company Blue Origin had with former President Trump, which occurred the day of the announcement, was a regretful coincidence, flatly saying “There is no connection between it and our decision on presidential endorsements, and any suggestion otherwise is false.”

WASHINGTON POST UNION, STAFFERS REVOLT OVER DECISION NOT TO ENDORSE A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, BLAME BEZOS

He went on to suggest that his paper and other members of the legacy media are out of touch with most Americans.

“The Washington Post and the New York Times win prizes, but increasingly we talk only to a certain elite. More and more, we talk to ourselves,” Bezos wrote. “While I do not and will not push my personal interest, I will also not allow this paper to stay on autopilot and fade into irrelevance — overtaken by unresearched podcasts and social media barbs — not without a fight. It’s too important. The stakes are too high. Now more than ever the world needs a credible, trusted, independent voice, and where better for that voice to originate than the capital city of the most important country in the world?”

“To win this fight, we will have to exercise new muscles. Some changes will be a return to the past, and some will be new inventions. Criticism will be part and parcel of anything new, of course. This is the way of the world. None of this will be easy, but it will be worth it. I am so grateful to be part of this endeavor. Many of the finest journalists you’ll find anywhere work at The Washington Post, and they work painstakingly every day to get to the truth. They deserve to be believed,” Bezos added.

BEFORE NON-ENDORSEMENT DECISION, WASHINGTON POST CALLED TRUMP ‘DREADFUL’ AND ‘WORST PRESIDENT OF MODERN TIMES’

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Bezos’ op-ed comes after The Post itself reported that the billionaire was behind the decision as the paper’s CEO and publisher Will Lewis had “sought to tamp down speculation” had made the decision to help former President Trump.

Meanwhile, the fallout over the decision is apparently leading The Post to pay a heavy price as NPR reported that the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” paper has lost more than a whopping 200,000 subscribers since Friday as liberal readers remain outraged that The Post is not endorsing Harris. Multiple members of the paper’s editorial staff have also resigned.

The Washington Post has been struggling the past several years. Subscriptions and revenue were in decline prior to the paper’s announcement about not endorsing the presidential race, which has led to buyouts and layoffs of employees. 

Report on ‘lopsided’ Trump, Harris coverage pulls back curtain on ‘blatant media bias’

Coverage on ABC, CBS and NBC News of the presidential race between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris has been the most “lopsided in history,” a new study released one week before the election found.

Analysis from the Media Research Center (MRC) published Monday found that Harris has received 78% positive coverage on broadcast evening news since July, versus Trump, who has been the subject of 85% negative coverage on the same networks.

“The difference in coverage between the two candidates is far greater than in 2016, when both Trump and then-challenger Hillary Clinton received mostly negative coverage [91% negative for Trump, vs. 79% negative for Clinton,]” according to MRC analysts.

FOR THIRD YEAR IN A ROW, MORE AMERICANS HAVE ‘NO TRUST’ IN MEDIA THAN THOSE WHO DO

The disparity between the Trump and Harris coverage is even greater than in 2020, “when Joe Biden was treated to 66% positive coverage, vs. 92% negative for Trump,” the study reads.

MRC reported that ABC, CBS and NBC have spent more than 200 minutes of airtime, most of it negative, harping on controversies surrounding Trump while glossing over or, in many cases, outright ignoring controversies related to Harris – such as plagiarism accusations and allegations surrounding her husband, Doug Emhoff.

“Instead, Harris’ coverage has been larded with enthusiastic quotes from pro-Harris voters, creating a positive ‘vibe’ for the Democrat even as network reporters criticize Trump themselves,” MRC writes.

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Analysts reviewed more than 600 segments about the presidential race that aired on ABC, CBS or NBC beginning on the day President Biden suspended his candidacy in late July, through October 25.

After weeks of glowing coverage for Harris as the Democratic nominee, the three networks seemingly changed their tone following the debate between Harris and Trump in September, the MRC analysts found.

“The networks shifted attention away from Harris, spending significantly more airtime targeting Trump,” the report reads.

“From the date Harris entered the race on July 21 through September 10, she received 353 minutes of network evening news coverage, virtually identical to the 355 minutes given Trump during the same period. Since then, however, TV has focused nearly twice as much attention on Trump as Harris: 398 minutes for the former President, compared to just 230 minutes for the Vice President,” the study found.

“The additional airtime for Trump was hardly meant as a gift. Instead, it reflected the networks’ intensive focus on Trump controversies, providing opportunities for negative news coverage,” according to MRC.

Roughly 31% of the 753 minutes of evening news spent on Trump since July 21 spotlighted his personal controversies, the study found. “This compares to barely five percent of Harris’s airtime [28 minutes, out of a total 583 minutes of coverage] spent on similar topics.

The networks repeatedly cited January 6 and Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged while labeling him as a “danger to democracy,” MRC reported.

Comparatively, “Harris faced no such onslaught. Over fourteen weeks, evening news viewers heard a scant 5 minutes, 22 seconds of GOP criticisms that she’s too liberal, barely one-sixth the airtime spent on the claim Trump is a ‘fascist.’ None of this coverage included any criticisms of Harris from either network reporters or nonpartisan sources,” MRC analysts found.

“Add it all up, and the media coverage of the past three months is more lopsided than that of any presidential election in the modern media age,” the report reads.

“So if Donald Trump regains the White House next week, the media’s campaign against him will have accomplished nothing, except the further erosion of their own reputations.”

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The MRC findings come shortly after a Gallup study revealed that trust remains both historically and consistently low in the media. Only 31% of those polled expressed a “great deal” or “fair amount” of faith in the media to report news properly.

“For the third consecutive year, more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount. Another 33% of Americans express ‘not very much’ confidence,” Gallup Senior Editor Megan Brenan wrote.

ABC, CBS and NBC News did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

Harris caught on hot mic admitting her campaign is struggling with male voters

Vice President Harris was surprised to find out a microphone was homing in on her conversation with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as she admitted her campaign was struggling with male voters.

Harris and Whitmer were sitting at a bar in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on Saturday and having what appeared to be a serious conversation – so serious that on a video making the rounds online, the Democratic presidential nominee seemed to forget the two of them were surrounded by cameras and microphones.

“So, my thing is we need to move ground among men,” Harris was heard telling Whitmer at the Trak Houz Bar and Grill.

Harris then immediately noticed the microphones were picking up on her conversation with the Democratic governor.

KAMALA HARRIS DOWNPLAYS DIMINISHING SUPPORT FROM MALE VOTERS: ‘IT’S NOT THE EXPERIENCE I’M HAVING’

“Oh, we have microphones in here just listening to everything,” Harris says, looking flustered. “I didn’t realize that!”

Fox News has reached out to the campaign for clarification on the comment.

Fox News’ Julian Turner reported that it was both former President Trump’s and Harris’ last chance to close the gender gap that has been widening since Harris became the presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.

CNN DATA REPORTER PREDICTS TRUMP WILL WIN ‘HISTORIC’ NUMBER OF BLACK AND HISPANIC VOTERS

The latest polls from the New York Times show Harris leading Trump with women voters, 54 percent to 42 percent, while Trump leads Harris among men voters, 55 percent to 41 percent, respectively.

Last week, Harris dismissed her diminishing support among male voters during an interview with NBC’s Peter Alexander, who asked why she thought there was a disconnect between her and men.

At first, Harris dodged the question, pointing to the live audience consisting of people from all backgrounds and genders who continue to show up to her events. She also said she was campaigning to earn the vote of every American.

TRUMP SUPPORT AMONG YOUNG BLACK AND LATINO MEN SPIKES IN NEW POLL

Alexander pressed Harris even more, asking what might explain the gap in support from men, and the vice president said it was not her experience.

In contrast, the GenForward poll from the University of Chicago that was released last Wednesday revealed that 26 percent of Black men between the ages of 18 and 40 said they would vote for Trump, while only 12 percent of Black women said the same. This is a significant gain since Black voters overall supported Biden over Trump by a nine to one ratio in the 2020 presidential election.

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Trump also improved with young Latino men, 44 percent of whom said they would support him compared to about 38 percent who voted for him in 2020. Even so, Harris leads Trump overall 47-35 in the poll, which includes large samples of young voters of color.

Swing state’s Supreme Court issues pivotal ruling on mail-in ballots sent without postmark

The Nevada Supreme Court ruled Monday that mail-in ballots without a postmark can be received and counted until four days after the election, the latest in a series of legal setbacks the court has handed to the Republican Party.

The ruling upholds a lower court’s rejection of a lawsuit filed by the Republican National Committee seeking to challenge the legality of the post-election deadline for mail-in ballots received without a postmark.

Plaintiffs had challenged the state’s decision to allow non-postmarked ballots to be counted four days after the election, the standard it allows for postmarked ballots, which they argued was “unconstitutional.” 

Their injunction to reject the ballots was struck down by a lower court earlier this year.

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The Nevada high court affirmed the lower court decision in its majority decision Monday, noting that the RNC had failed to demonstrate evidence to support its claims that the non-postmarked ballots were vulnerable to election fraud or favored one political party over another. 

Judges also agreed with the lower court’s contention that the RNC lacked proper standing to sue, and that the case was “inherently speculative.”

BATTLEGROUND STATE’S HIGH COURT REJECTS GOP CHALLENGE TO PROVISIONAL BALLOT RULES

“If a voter properly and timely casts their vote by mailing their ballot before or on the day of the election, and through a post office omission the ballot is not postmarked, it would go against public policy to discount that properly cast vote,” the majority of justices wrote in their opinion.

It is unclear how many residents will be impacted by the decision.

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But it comes as Democrats have sought to position themselves as the party that supports free and fair elections, seizing on Republican lawsuits as a means of disenfranchising voters.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the RNC for comment. 

26 GOP attorneys general join Virginia in petitioning Supreme Court to rule on voter roll

FIRST ON FOX: Twenty-six Republican attorneys general joined Virginia on Monday in urging the Supreme Court to halt a lower court decision that restored the voting rights of 1,600 residents.

The amicus brief backs Virginia’s contention that the ruling is overly broad and lacks standing under a provision of the National Voter Registration Act (NRVA), which orders states to halt all “systematic” voter roll maintenance 90 days before an election. It now has the support of every Republican-led U.S. state, giving it outsize attention in the final stretch before the election.

In the amicus brief, attorneys general urged the court to grant Virginia’s emergency motion and “restore the status quo,” noting that doing so “would comply with the law and enable Virginia to ensure that noncitizens do not vote in the upcoming election.”

The states also sided with Virginia in objecting to the Justice Department’s reading of NVRA protections, which they said was overly broad.

Moreover, they said, the law in place in Virginia was not designed to “systematically” remove residents from the voter rolls, as Justice Department officials cited in their lawsuit earlier this month.

The Justice Department had argued the removals were conducted too close to the Nov. 5 elections and violated the “quiet period” provision under NVRA. That contention was backed by a federal judge in Alexandria, which ordered the affected voters back on the rolls, and upheld by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

SWING-STATE’S SUPREME COURT ISSUES PIVOTAL RULING ON MAIL-IN BALLOTS SENT WITHOUT POSTMARK

In the amicus brief, lawyers describe the ruling as a “sweeping interpretation of the NVRA” that “converts a procedural statute into a substantive federal regulation of voter qualifications in elections—an interpretation that would raise serious questions about the constitutionality of the NVRA itself.”

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has insisted the voters were removed legally and that the removal process is based on precedent from a 2006 state law enacted by then-Gov. Tim Kaine, a Democrat. 

That process compared the state Department of Motor Vehicles’ noncitizens list to its list of registered voters. Those without citizenship were then informed that their voter registration would be canceled unless they could prove their citizenship in 14 days.

Youngkin and Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares have argued the lower court rulings are “individualized” and not systematic, as the Justice Department alleged earlier this month. 

They argued that restoring them just days before an election is likely to inject new chaos into the voting process – an argument backed by the group of Republican states in the Monday filing.

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YOUNGKIN VOWS TO APPEAL ‘TO SCOTUS’ AFTER US JUDGE ORDERS 1,600 VOTERS BACK ON BALLOT

“This Court should reject Respondents’ effort to change the rules in the middle of the game and restore the status quo ante,” they wrote. “The Constitution leaves decisions about voter qualifications to the people of Virginia. And the people of Virginia have decided that noncitizens are not permitted to vote.”

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Walz’s wife defends tampons in boys’ bathroom with answer about learning to read

Gwen Walz, wife of Minnesota governor and Democratic vice presidential hopeful Tim Walz, indicated offering tampons in school bathrooms would help students learn to read during an appearance on Katie Couric’s podcast Sunday. 

Couric asked Walz about her husband being called “Tampon Tim,” a nickname coined by conservatives after he signed a bill in his state that would put free menstrual products in all school restrooms, including boys’ rooms.

“If kids are hungry in school, what that does to brain and learning, you’re not going to learn to read,” Walz said. “So if you’re talking about learning to read and closing gaps then you better take away the barriers for that. If that’s tampons, then that’s tampons, right?”

“Take away the barriers and let’s get to the real work of this, not get lost in what are components and, as some people would say, you know, equaling the playing field or whatever it might be,” she said. 

COLUMNIST DEFENDS WALZ PUTTING TAMPONS IN BOYS’ ROOMS AS WAY FOR ‘KING STUD’ GUYS TO OFFER THEM TO GIRLS

The legislation says menstrual products “must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.” Since then, the moniker “Tampon Tim” has been used to highlight his socially progressive views.

“Tim and I have always thought about removing barriers to learning and success, and whatever that barrier is, whether it be free lunch or menstruation products or knowing who you are, everyone means everyone and some things look different for some people,” Walz said. “People have different needs and they have different resources, but everyone means everyone and all of us.”

“So that is not an unmessy journey, but we have looked at it like, ‘What do you need to move forward, what do you need to be happy and healthy and have success and how might we most effectively and best help with that and then mind your own damn business right?'” she continued. “Then get out of the way, because and, I think that those two pieces probably describe Tim. He’s compassionate, he’s empathetic, he removes barriers.” 

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Walz continued, adding that schools should “provide what we need to provide.”

“He does a great job of that, but I also think, you know, then he’s like ‘Whose business is that, like mind it yourself,’ now I have to put a quarter in the swear jar but mind it yourself, like, let’s just get on about the real important issues that we have to solve, not get caught up in people’s own personal business.”

“We see equity as getting people what they need to get to a specific place where we can have that conversation,” she added. 

Walz also discussed second gentleman Doug Emhoff’s advice and the support he has given her. 

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“He is such an amazing person and how he models support for his wife and empowers women and empowers me is really miraculous,” she said. “So he has, you know, had a good sense of humor about things.”

Notably, Emhoff has faced allegations that he once slapped an ex-girlfriend “so hard she spun around” after she flirted with a valet and that he engaged in “inappropriate” and “misogynistic” office behavior at his Los Angeles law firm, according to the Daily Mail. 

Emhoff’s first marriage ended following his affair with their children’s nanny, whom he got pregnant, according to the Daily Mail. The nanny’s close friend told the outlet that she did not keep the baby, but did not elaborate further. 

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Walz roasted after botching common football term despite coaching past

Tim Walz committed a fumble on Sunday.

The Minnesota governor, a former high school defensive coach, was widely mocked for misusing a common football term after livestreaming himself playing video games. 

Walz was playing the latest edition of the Madden video game series on Twitch with Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., in an effort to appeal to young male voters just days before the election. During the game, both Democrats urged voters to support Vice President Kamala Harris’ White House bid. 

KAMALA HARRIS DOWNPLAYS DIMINISHING SUPPORT FROM MALE VOTERS: ‘IT’S NOT THE EXPERIENCE I’M HAVING’

Afterward, Walz, who was wearing a camouflage Minnesota Vikings cap, posted on X that Ocasio-Cortez “could run a mean pick 6,” meaning when a defender returns an interception for a touchdown. 

“And we both know when you take the time to draw up a playbook, you’re gonna use it,” Walz also wrote. 

The post was later deleted, but critics quickly jumped on the mistake. 

Republican vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, of Ohio, noted the difference between a pick 6 and offensive plays. 

“You don’t run a pick-six, you run the West Coast offense or the spread offense,” Vance said at a campaign rally. “It made me realize that even though they say Tim Walz was a football coach, I think I know more about football than Tim Walz. And it’s appropriate ’cause I think my running mate, Donald J. Trump, knows more about working at McDonald’s than Kamala Harris does.”

“AOC can run a mean pick 6 – and I can call an audible on a play. And they wonder why they can’t get men to vote for this ticket,” one X user wrote. 

CUSTOMERS AT THE MCDONALD’S TRUMP VISITED APPLAUD HIM FOR MAKING ‘CONTACT WITH THE LITTLE GUY’

“Tampon Tim is such a dork. You’d think a so-called football coach would be aware that you don’t run a pick 6!” the Trump campaign “War Room” account wrote. 

“Are we sure Tim Walz has even watched a game of football, let alone coached a team?” another user wrote.

“I’m not sure Kamala ever worked at McDonald’s and now I’m unsure if Walz ever coached football.” wrote another. 

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Before being elected governor, Walz was a teacher and coach at Alliance High School in Nebraska and Mankato West High School in Minnesota.