Media critics and informed people in general were bewildered and angered this week when the Washington Post announced it would not endorse a presidential candidate. This move was made “in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds,” according to the Post’s publisher, William Lewis.

“No one believes that guy, he’s a yes man for the Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos,” my neighbor Swamp Rabbit said, noting that the Post, in making this move, had scuttled the endorsement of Kamala Harris that its editorial board drafted earlier this month. “Bezos wanted to stay on Trump’s good side. He ain’t foolin’ nobody.”

My pesky friend and I agreed that Bezos, by bowing to Trump, has damaged the newspaper’s credibility as an independent news source. The billionaire Amazon founder has reminded the world that the news business has changed drastically in the half-century since the Post defied the powers-that-be by pursuing the Watergate burglary story and by fighting, along with the New York Times, a successful court battle to finish publishing the Pentagon Papers.

Many readers have opted to “make up their own minds” about the Post‘s non-endorsement by canceling their subscriptions to the newspaper. Many of the Post‘s writers and editors are as upset as their readers.

Former Post editor Marty Baron tweeted that the move was “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty.” Editor-at-large Robert Kagan resigned from the Post over the weekend and called the endorsement fiasco “premature capitulation,” meaning that Bezos and his minions, even if embarrassed, must have felt it was prudent to back away from Harris just in case Trump wins the election.

Historian Timothy Snyder cautioned against this sort of thing in his 2017 book On Tyranny:

Do not obey in advance. Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.

I noted that the Post‘s slogan “Democracy dies in darkness” seems sadly ironic in light of its decision to cave to Trump.

“Kagan nailed it,” Swamp Rabbit said, shrugging. “Bezos is scared his rocket ship company might be in trouble if he don’t play ball with the orange beast.”

“It’s all about the money.” he added. “Greedy, unaccountable creeps like Bezos can’t never get enough of it.”