The WaPo and LA Times owners are tax minimizers

Lots of people hate that billionaire media owners Jeff Bezos and Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong stomped on Kamala Harris endorsements. But maybe there's a very simple reason they suddenly stepped up.

On Friday, October 25, The Washington Post announced it had decided not to make a presidential endorsement for the first time in 36 years despite, according to NPR's David Folkenflik, "the presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris is neck and neck."

Earlier in the week, on October 22, Semafor broke the news that the LA Times had made a similar decision.

The owner of the Los Angeles Times has blocked the paper from endorsing a candidate for president this year.

Last week, the LA Times published its electoral endorsements for the 2024 election. And while the paper noted in its first line that it is “no exaggeration to say this may be the most consequential election in a generation,” that was the only mention of the presidential race in its endorsements.

The backlash has been huge.

According to a story in the LA Times on October 28:

Sources said The Times, which has less than 400,000 subscribers, had more than 7,000 subscribers cancel for “editorial reasons” as of Monday. Total cancellations over the last few days were running significantly higher.

The impact to the Washington Post is even bigger.