‘Known By Some Scholars As Anticipatory Obedience’: CNN’s Stelter Says Concern On WaPo Not Endorsing Harris Is Authoritarian Appeasement

CNN’s Brian Stelter on Saturday said that The Washington Post declining to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris against Republican Donald Trump could be “what some scholars call anticipatory obedience” to “curry favor with aspiring authoritarians.”

The Washington Post opted not to endorse a candidate for president this year, causing a massive outpouring of indignant outrage on the left and among Democrats, who are arguing that endorsing their candidate is implicitly endorsing the idea of democracy and opposition to tyranny – a central theme of both the defunct campaign of President Joe Biden and the replacement one run by Harris and her VP pick Gov. Tim Walz.

Reporting on the fallout for CNN, Stelter said he’s heard there have been “thousands of Post subscribers” who have “reached out to cancel their subscriptions” over the incident, and then turned to the statement from publisher Will Lewis, who said “As publisher, I do not believe in presidential endorsements. We are an independent newspaper and should support our readers ability to make up their own minds.”

“The overarching story here is about a concern that billionaires like Bezos might be rolling over and appeasing Donald Trump even before the Election Day actually rolls around,” Stelter said. “This is known by some scholars as anticipatory obedience. The idea that some people obey in advance to curry favor with aspiring authoritarians.”

The phrase “anticipatory obedience” has been widely used in media in the wake of the decisions by the LA Times and The Washington Post not to endorse, actually comes from a social media thread-turned-book from left wing Yale professor Timothy Snyder, who has the last few years speaking and writing against Trump.

“Certainly many liberal critics of Trump believe that’s exactly what’s happening now at publications like The Washington Post,” Stelter continued. “And I’ve heard from staffers inside the Post, reporters and editors who are worried about the chilling effect this is having.

As one source there said to me, “we are talking internally about how to cover a possible second Trump term and we’re concerned that the owner won’t have our backs.”

Stelter quoted one source as saying to him, “We are talking internally about how to cover a possible second Trump term and we’re concerned that the owner won’t have our backs.”

Now, Post publisher Will Lewis, who was handpicked by Bezos to run the organization, says in a new statement to me today: “As publisher, I do not believe in presidential endorsements. We are an independent newspaper and should support our readers ability to make up their own minds.”

Now he is refuting some reporting from the New York Times that he actually wanted to publish the endorsement of Harris until Bezos said not to.

The overarching story here is about a concern that billionaires like Bezos might be rolling over and appeasing Donald Trump even before the Election Day actually rolls around. This is known by some scholars as anticipatory obedience. The idea that some people obey in advance to curry favor with aspiring authoritarians.

Certainly many liberal critics of Trump believe that’s exactly what’s happening now at publications like The Washington Post. And I’ve heard from staffers inside the Post, reporters and editors who are worried about the chilling effect this is having.

As one source there said to me, “we are talking internally about how to cover a possible second Trump term and we’re concerned that the owner won’t have our backs.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.