Even after billionaire Jeff Bezos’ paper declined to endorse Kamala Harris, Donald Trump’s team is still lobbing accusations that The Washington Post is colluding with his opponent.
On Friday, the Trump campaign announced that it had filed a Federal Election Commission complaint against the Post, alleging that the paper made illegal in-kind contributions to Harris’ campaign.
In the filing, Trump’s lawyer characterizes articles the Post paid to get eyes on as overly influenced by the left, though he acknowledges the stories don’t contain the “magic words” that would clearly qualify as advocacy. He alleged that these should qualify as unreported campaign contributions.
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“As part of The Washington Post’s regular social media marketing strategy, promoted posts across social media platforms reflect high-performing content across all verticals and subjects,” a Washington Post spokesperson told the Daily Beast. “We believe allegations suggesting this routine media practice is improper are without merit.”
The complaint, dated Oct. 31, comes amid backlash around the Post’s decision not to endorse a candidate in the hotly anticipated presidential race, which reportedly came at Bezos’ direction. The newspaper’s journalists protested; some even resigned. In the week after the announcement, more than 250,000 readers canceled their subscriptions.
Bezos defended his decision, writing, “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.”
But behind the scenes, Semafor reported Wednesday, the Post appeared to be trying to stem the bleeding. This week, the outlet began to ramp up its spending on advertising its articles, including dozens of election-related stories. While the pieces it boosted about Harris were “relatively neutral,” the ones it highlighted about Trump seemed to be mostly critical.
Speaking to Semafor before the Trump campaign filed its complaint, a Post employee said that only a minority of the promoted posts criticized Trump.
The complaint is a welcome distraction for the Trump campaign as it faces backlash over the former president’s comments about putting Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad.
“While they declined to endorse her publicly, they have endorsed her in the dark,” stated the Trump campaign press release about the filing. “So much for ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness.’”
