New York CNN —
For the first time in decades, the Washington Post will not endorse a candidate in this year’s presidential election, the paper’s publisher announced Friday, a decision that sparked widespread anger among the paper’s staff.
“The Washington Post will not endorse any presidential candidate in this election, nor will it be the case in any future presidential election,” Post publisher Will Lewis said in a statement. “We’re going back to our roots of not supporting presidential candidates.”
The paper said the decision not to support it was made by billionaire and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, citing two people briefed on the matter.
The paper’s editorial staff had drafted a letter of support for Vice President Kamala Harris and had it ready for approval by the board, but the draft was never presented, a person familiar with the matter told CNN. .
“Many of the editorial board members are surprised and angry,” the person said.
The Post has endorsed presidential candidates in every election since the 1980s. In a statement, Lewis referenced the editorial board’s past decisions not to endorse candidates, noting that it was a right “to which we return.”
“We recognize that this will be read in a variety of ways, including tacit support for one candidate, condemnation of another, or an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable,” Lewis said. continued. “We don’t see it that way. We don’t see it that way. We believe it’s about the values the Post has always espoused and what we expect from our leaders: character and courage in service of American ethics; We believe that this is consistent with reverence for the rule of law and respect for human freedom in all its aspects.”
Newspaper owners typically support their publications and sign off on editorials, which are seen as reflecting their views.
One of the newspaper’s reporters told CNN that the Harris campaign has not engaged with the editorial board as part of the endorsement process. Another Post official said the paper had requested meetings with both sides but had not met with either candidate. A spokeswoman for the newspaper had no comment.
Ahead of Friday’s announcement, The Post’s editorial page editor David Shipley told staff that Lewis planned to announce the decision in a public letter.
“This news is important and I know there will be strong reactions across the department,” Shipley wrote in the memo.
Robert Kagan, the Post’s opinion editor who resigned on Friday in protest after the announcement, said Bezos had made the decision to appease Trump.
Robert Kagan told CNN’s Erin Burnett Outfront: “This is clearly a ploy by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump in anticipation of his victory.” Ta. “Mr. Trump threatened to go after Bezos’ business. Mr. Bezos runs some of the largest companies in America. They have a very complicated relationship with the federal government. They depend on the federal government. There is.”
The move was also condemned by former editor-in-chief Marty Barron, who led the paper through its coverage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
“This is a despicable act at the expense of democracy. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further blackmail owner Bezos (and others),” Barron said in a social media post. I wrote it. “An unsettling loss of spine in an institution renowned for courage.”
Under Barron, the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for Public Achievement for its coverage of the storming of the U.S. Capitol, which it described as an “attempted coup.”
During the Trump presidency, he famously had a feud with Bezos, particularly regarding e-commerce giant Amazon. President Trump called the Post the “Fake News Washington Post” and derided it as Amazon’s “chief lobbyist.”
President Trump directly accused Amazon of not paying enough taxes and exploiting the U.S. Postal Service. The Trump administration also blocked Amazon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract with the Department of Defense, which was widely seen at the time as Trump seeking retaliation against Bezos over the Post’s reporting. Ta.
Baron wrote in his book “Clash of Powers” that Bezos was instrumental in determining the Post’s slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” which was eventually adopted during the Trump era.
But Trump has vowed to weaponize government and take revenge on his perceived enemies and critics if he is re-elected in November. Hours after the Post announced the decision on Friday, Trump greeted executives at Blue Origin, the space exploration company owned by Bezos, the Associated Press reported. The company has a $3.4 billion contract with the federal government to build a new spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the moon.
In Washington, Bezos’ decision not to endorse him in the 2024 race left some members of the Post editorial board blindsided and disgusted, multiple people told CNN. “We are furious,” said one writer.
A group of 13 Post opinion columnists later issued a statement condemning the decision as a “terrible mistake.”
“This means abandoning the fundamental editorial beliefs of the newspaper we love and have worked for for a combined 218 years,” they wrote.
Another staffer cited the Post’s slogan, saying, “Democracy doesn’t die in the dark, it dies when people anticipate and consent to the whims of fascists.” Other postal workers also publicly expressed regret.
“The newspaper I loved and worked for for 47 years is dying in darkness,” Pulitzer Prize-winning editor David Maraniss wrote. social media posts.
Another Washington Post reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity, told CNN he had mixed feelings about the decision.
“We’re glad the Post is no longer endorsing it, but what a terrible time and way to roll it out,” the person said. “If you’ve been reading the Post over the past few years and you’ve read all the facts that the news side has uncovered, I don’t think you need an editorial board to tell you what to do.”
The decision comes days after Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shione blocked the paper’s plans to endorse Harris, leading to the resignation of three editorial board members.
Major U.S. newspaper chains have also scaled back their support for the president in recent years. McClatchy and Alden Global Capital, which owns hundreds of newspapers across the country, have eliminated the practice. Earlier this year, the New York Times announced it would no longer endorse Harris in local elections, but later endorsed Harris, calling her “the only patriotic candidate for president.”
On Friday, the Philadelphia Enquirer and Houston Chronicle also endorsed Harris.
The Inquirer editorial board said, “America deserves far more than an ambitious dictator who ignores the law, stays out of prison, and cares about no one but himself.” I wrote it.
