🫠 🫠 🫠
Jeff Bezos Blocking WaPo's Presidential Endorsement, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
Every day, somebody says or does something that earns them the scorn of the internet. Here at Digg, as part of our mission to curate what the internet is talking about right now, we rounded up the main characters on X from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.
Each day on twitter there is one main character. The goal is to never be it
-- maple cocaine (@maplecocaine) January 3, 2019
This week, we've got a controversial Halloween costume, a bad take on NYC trains and a billionaire making a very bad decision.
Sunday
@jackjack_o
The character: @jackjack_o, X user, offensive costume wearer
The plot: In the days leading up to Halloween, people have been sharing their favorite costumes from years past. One X user, named Jack, shared their look from last Halloween — dressed up as “human traffic-king” — and people were far from amused.
last year when i was “human traffic king” pic.twitter.com/2U6Jerwhqt
— jack (@jackjack_o) October 27, 2024
The repercussion: Most of the responses criticized Jack’s insensitive choice of costume, but some people also questioned what appears to be a wet patch on the front of his pants.
Is this supposed to be funny?
— 𝒮𝒶𝓇𝒶𝒽 (𝒯𝒶𝓎𝓁𝑜𝓇’𝓈 𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓈𝒾𝑜𝓃) (@giftedswifted) October 27, 2024
genuinely what made you think this was a good idea?
— s (@go1dwng) October 28, 2024
https://t.co/R94zJtTQNH pic.twitter.com/kwJtajhnRZ
— sol⁷ (@L1V1NGTHINGS) October 27, 2024
venture bros background character https://t.co/CcW93XsfCI
— 🐦⬛ wes/jade (@chromaticGambit) October 27, 2024
Are the wet pants part of the costume or- pic.twitter.com/q3eqd8zGrc
— lara (@Schl0tterbeck) October 27, 2024
Why’d you piss ur pants tho…weird addition.
— CertifiedFauget (@TrentBuckman) October 27, 2024
Darcy Jimenez
Tuesday
Eric Spillman
The character: Eric Spillman, KTLA reporter, subway hater
The plot: After game four of the World Series this week, Los Angeles journalist Eric Spillman, who reports on winning team the LA Dodgers, posted a video of an overflowing NYC subway train on X.
"People complain about traffic at Dodger stadium," he wrote. "This is way worse."
People complain about traffic at Dodger stadium. This is way worse. pic.twitter.com/wHhgC0Btde
— eric spillman (@ericspillman) October 29, 2024
The repercussion: Nobody would've batted an eyelid had Spillman gone about his day, perhaps even covertly celebrating a Los Angeles dub, but instead he chose to poke a bear that had nothing to do with baseball — New York public transit. If you're picking a fight between Los Angeles traffic and the NYC subway, you're going to lose every time.
His West coast natives tried reasoning with him, while the East coasters were rude and to the point.
no it’s not, there’s another train coming in a couple minutes and it’s only $2.90
— sam (@sam_d_1995) October 29, 2024
Those people will be home before the people in most stadiums get out of the parking lot.
— Rarely Tolerable. (@RarelyTolerated) October 30, 2024
Yeah, sitting idle in a car for 2.5 hours in a parking lot with no social interaction after your team wins is truly great. https://t.co/LXUF4I3DqN
— Hayden (@the_transit_guy) October 30, 2024
ai imagines what nyc could look like with la-style transportation https://t.co/qttj3xmgCw pic.twitter.com/KrNXOMzYq5
— NYC DOT (@NYC_DOT) October 30, 2024
Imagine every single one of these people is a mid-size SUV and the train is a two lane street and thats Dodger Stadium traffic. https://t.co/b7LAozgXwK
— ian karmel (@IanKarmel) October 30, 2024
Yankee Stadium is one of the most easily accessible ballparks in America, especially if you live in Manhattan. Another train will come in 5 minutes and it costs you less than $3 to get home. It’s fantastic. https://t.co/0giJIMOK2i
— Joe Pompliano (@JoePompliano) October 30, 2024
Adwait Patil
Tuesday
Jeff Bezos
The character: Jeff Bezos, ultra-rich owner of The Washington Post, king of reverse marketing
The plot: Bezos, known for making billions from founding Amazon, threw his weight around this week to stop one of the US's most prominent newspapers from endorsing Kamala Harris for President. After suffering an enormous backlash from subscribers, he decided to double down with an extremely weak explanation that ended up making people even more angry.
Opinion by Jeff Bezos: Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. The credibility gap can be bridged by independence. https://t.co/ukc569Z24p
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) October 29, 2024
The repercussion: Most of the time, the worst thing that happens to one of the internet's main characters is suffering some sick dunks on social media. This time, WaPo lost a quarter of a million paying subscribers — a devastating number. Of course, Jeff Bezos gets to keep being rich, but now that he's broken his toy, he's tired of it.
Just read the insights of Jeff Bezos in his opinion piece in The Post. I wasn't going to join 200,000 others and cancel my subscription because doing so won't hurt Bezos -- he paid more for his yachts than his newspaper -- and, yes, the Post newsroom where good people, and some…
— David Simon (@AoDespair) October 28, 2024
But wait. I was told that Jeff Bezos, the 2nd richest man in America worth $211 billion, had no say in the editorial decisions of the Washington Post when it ran 16 negative Bernie Sanders headlines in 16 hours during his run for President in 2016. This can't possibly be true. https://t.co/vy2DlGKjqi
— Warren Gunnels (@GunnelsWarren) October 25, 2024
Here's how we KNOW @JeffBezos' decision was cowardice, not principle:
— Mathew Helman (@MatHelman) October 29, 2024
A] #WashingtonPost still endorsed in other high profile races like #MDSen & #VASen.
B] Even if endorsements tip no scales (which is false), THAT ISN'T THE POINT!#JeffBezos caved. He is 100% full of shit. https://t.co/4fs41EAIte
Who on Bezos's team thought, "this is going to make things better" lol. It's condescending, minimizing, and out of touch with the moment. This feels like it was written by a corporate comms team, stowed away somewhere in an ivory tower, peddling in amateur gaslighting. https://t.co/vZ9o1kEMor
— Ben Becker (@BenjaminDBecker) October 29, 2024
Bezos making a blanket, totally unsupported claim here — something any good reporter, editor or editorial board member would know to avoid https://t.co/A5lRIfvFBf pic.twitter.com/9TPmJI0xWp
— Aaron Mendelson (@a_mendelson) October 28, 2024
Dumb lecture from the tech guy owner is sure to boost reader and employee morale @washingtonpost https://t.co/l0ZEmETWvG
— Anthony McAuley (@AnthonyMcAuley2) October 29, 2024
Jeff Bezos has owned the Washington Post since 2013. The newspaper published an endorsement of Hillary Clinton in 2016, and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. Suddenly, eleven years later, Bezos has been seized by a point of principle against the tradition of publishing endorsements. https://t.co/9CVJloprwi
— Matthew Fraser 🇪🇺 (@frasermatthew) October 29, 2024
What gaslighting nonsense. A lot of “trust me” in this editorial. You don’t get credit for not abusing your position for 10 years once you finally do. https://t.co/cAqjmG33WZ
— Brian McNally (@bmcnally14) October 29, 2024
My “I would also like to be clear that no quid pro quo of any kind is at work here” shirt has people asking a lot of questions already answered by my shirt https://t.co/WD8vQnwehB pic.twitter.com/6DTe6ip90K
— Joey Politano 🏳️🌈 (@JosephPolitano) October 29, 2024
https://t.co/VcyZiDpImF pic.twitter.com/F2mxtHDxEf
— John Skonieczny (@JohnnySkins) October 29, 2024
Things are definitely Going Well when your owner has to write an op-ed to explain himself https://t.co/CgQYRKXB4v
— Jaymes (@JaymesL) October 29, 2024
Grant Brunner
Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which featured a sad nepo baby, someone who doesn't like walkable cities, a terrible breakup story, yet more age gap discourse and a wild take on IVF babies.
[Image credit: Daniel Oberhaus/Creative Commons]