Article in Columbia Journalism Review by Yona TR Golding, 2/24/25
Headline: “Spiking and Swooning at the Washington Post“
Subhead: “What the paper’s killing of endorsements, ads, and cartoons has inadvertently revealed about our fragile Fourth Estate.”
“Earlier this month, Common Cause, a DC-based watchdog, submitted a proof copy of a “wraparound” advertisement meant to run on a Tuesday on the front and back pages of the Washington Post. The ad, later published on the organization’s X account, featured an image of Elon Musk against a red backdrop, eyes closed and grinning in apparent mirth, with an image of the White House aslant in the foreground. The main text of the ad read, ‘Who’s running this country: Donald Trump or Elon Musk?’ Below, in a smaller font, it continued: ‘Since day one, Elon Musk has created chaos and confusion and put our livelihoods at risk. And he is accountable to no one but himself.’ The ad ended with a tagline, ‘No One Elected Elon Musk,’ and a link: FireMusk.org.
“Common Cause, along with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund, which collaborated on the campaign, had a vision: that staffers in the White House, Pentagon, and congressional offices would receive a striking message along with their morning copy of the Post. Together with a full-page ad scheduled to run inside the paper on the same day, the wraparound was set to cost the organizations $115,000.
“It wasn’t to be. Three days after it submitted the proof, Common Cause received notice that the main ad would not be allowed to run, though a sales representative had previously indicated that the copy should not present a problem. In the end, though, ‘they said, ‘You can have something inside the paper but you can’t do the wrap,’ Virginia Kase Solomón, president of Common Cause, told The Hill. ‘We said ‘Thanks, no thanks,’ . . .”
“The Post has so far declined to clarify why the Common Cause ad wasn’t allowed to run, leading to widespread speculation that the decision may have had something to do with the will of Jeff Bezos, the billionaire owner of both Amazon and the Post, and his desire to make nice with Trump’s new administration. ‘Is Jeff Bezos more worried about an angry phone call from the White House than his paper’s journalistic duty?’ Common Cause asked . . . ”
https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/spiking-swooning-washington-post-wapo-bezos-endorsement-ad-cartoon-kill.php
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Article in Common Cause by Staff, 2/24/25
Headline: “NEW: The Washington Post Censored Our #FireMusk Ad”
Subhead: “The Washington Post – which has a responsibility to hold a magnifying glass up to powerful people like Elon Musk and Donald Trump – refused to run our ad calling them out.”
https://www.commoncause.org/
