Is it Fair to See Bezos Cancelling the Washington Post’s Endorsement of Kamala as a Sign of Fascistic Tendencies?

I just wrote a blog disagreeing with Kamala’s branding Trump a fascist and now Bezos, an entrepreneur I’ve long admired, seems to be behaving like one himself.  I’m beginning to see now in Bezos, I hate to say it, our Democracy perhaps on the verge of becoming mortally sick in darkness.

Is it not a sign of fascism when authoritarians clamp down on freedom of speech and censor whatever they find to be not just repugnant, but in opposition to their highness’s best interest?

Lording over the Washington Post as the paper’s owner or perhaps supreme commander, Jeff Bezos orders the paper’s publisher not to run a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris.

For the staff and the readers of the Post, it was a surreal order, perhaps a sign of ATD, antidemocratic tendencies disorder.

The paper’s publisher and C.E.O. William Lewis announced that its planned endorsement of Kamala Harris would not run and all manner of explanation given, such as respect for the reader and a return to the editorial page’s more neutral roots, sounded like superlatives for the orders of a fascist dictator.

Was the endorsement killed because Bezos has plenty of business with the federal government, and dared not offend Donald Trump, should he be re-elected President?  Or was he just flexing a tendency toward dictatorship and fascism?

Isn’t that what a boss is in a way, and a CEO of a company, perhaps with a little more finesse and charm with the consent of an obliging board of directors than just an outright do-as-I-say order.

Was this the same Bezos who had ironically endorsed a Trump-era slogan for the paper—“Democracy Dies in Darkness”—and had seemed to support journalistic zeal, enterprise and a crusading quest for rigorous reporting?  I’ve long admired many Bezos trophies and I’m even an investor in a few myself, such as Amazon, where many of my books are on sale, including Planetary Lifeguard.

Now, was Bezos suffering from degeneration of the spine, as one journalist put it, or were these the true colors of a latent fascist showing through?  I hope not!

Cometh the uproar

Post columnists expressed embarrassment and anger, three editorial-board members, including Hoffman, resigned and within a few days, according to NPR, 250,000 Post readers had cancelled their subscriptions.

“For decades, the Washington Post's editorials have been a beacon of light, signaling hope to dissidents, political prisoners and the voiceless,” Hoffman wrote in a letter Monday explaining his decision to leave the editorial board.

“When victims of repression were harassed, exiled, imprisoned and murdered, we made sure the whole world knew the truth.

“I believe we face a very real threat of autocracy in the candidacy of Donald Trump,” Hoffman added in his letter to Editorial Page Editor David Shipley, which was obtained by NPR. “I find it untenable and unconscionable that we have lost our voice."

Jeff, please think over your decision, let it not be remembered as an imperial ruling by a quasi-fascist.

Tom Madden is an author of six books, his latest Planetary Lifeguard, Blowing the Whistle at Climate Change and a weekly blog at www.maddenmischief.com.  When he’s not writing, he’s managing TransMedia Group, the public relations firm he founded when he left NBC at 30 Rock in NYC.