Jeff Bezos defends Washington Post's end to election endorsements
Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has defended his newspaper's decision to stop making presidential endorsements, saying the move could help improve credibility.
Mr Bezos, who is also the Amazon founder, argued in an article on the Post's website on Monday that presidential endorsements created the "perception of bias" and did not "tip the scales" of an election.
The comments follow public scrutiny, as well as the newspaper's reported loss of thousands of subscribers and the resignation of some editorial staff members.
The decision to stop endorsing a presidential candidate - which was announced just days before the election - broke with a custom the Post had generally followed for decades.
"No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, 'I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement'. None," Mr Bezos wrote in his defence of the move.
"What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one."
