LEVER WEEKLY: The Oligarch Endorsement Game

This is Lever Weekly, a recap of our work from the past week. If you only read one email from us all week, this should be it.

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The Oligarch Endorsement Game

By David Sirota

In this week’s essay, originally published in The Sunday Long Read, David Sirota reflects on the fact that the billionaire-owned Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post announced this week that they would not be endorsing anyone in the presidential election. 

Less than two weeks before the election, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post both announced they are refraining from publishing endorsements in the race. As The Guardian notes, “anticipatory obedience” may be at play — and reading its analysis evokes three feelings: 1) Yes, that’s true! 2) How the hell is anyone only realizing this now? And 3) Everyone owes Bernie Sanders an apology. 

So yes — the newspapers’ surprise decisions are probably motivated, at least in part, by their owners’ desire to avoid retribution from a potential Trump administration (the decisions may involve other issues, too). Either way, the fear of anything that might be perceived as ”too political” is real — and a ...