Washington Post Building in Washington, DC, on June 5.
Image Andrew Harnik/Getty
hide caption
change the caption
Image Andrew Harnik/Getty
A lot of current and former journalists Washington Post criticized the legacy newspaper after owner Jeff Bezos decided to withhold a planned editorial endorsement for the president for the first time in 36 years.
“The Washington Post’s decision not to make an endorsement in the presidential campaign was a terrible mistake,” said the joint column that has been signed by 17 Post columnists as Friday afternoon.
An opinion piece, published on the paper’s website, said the president’s endorsement was a reminder to readers of what it was all about Post stands for. It states that the newspaper cannot back down from its responsibility to protect the core democratic values threatened by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Editorials have repeatedly warned that Trump is unfit for office.
“Independent newspapers may choose to withdraw from making presidential endorsements. But this is not the right moment, when one candidate is advocating a position that directly threatens the freedom of the press and the values of the Constitution,” the column added. It was signed by several PostMost famous authors, including Pulitzer Prize winners Eugene Robinson, David Ignatius and Jennifer Rubin.
NPR first reported Bezos’ decision. The column came just hours after publisher William Lewis made the announcement Friday afternoon. In his opinion piece, Lewis explains that the Post did not regularly make endorsements until 1976. He said it was time to return to tradition and support “the reader’s ability to make up his own mind.”
At Post had planned an editorial endorsement for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris earlier this month. But this was ultimately scrapped by the paper’s billionaire owner Bezos, also the founder of Amazon Post reported. The Post’s revelation came just days after it was reported that Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked the paper’s Editorial Board from endorsing Harris.
Image from Ann Telnaes cartoon below Washington PostAnnouncement to not make presidential endorsement.
The Washington Post / Screenshot by NPR
hide caption
change the caption
The Washington Post / Screenshot by NPR
Two other columns published there written frustration with Post decision. “I have never been more disappointed in a newspaper than I am today,” he wrote editor and columnist Ruth Marcus. “This is not the time to make such changes. This is the time to speak, loudly and confidently, to make the case we made in 2016 and again in 2020: that Trump is too dangerous to hold the highest office in the land.”
Editor and columnist Karen Tumulty wrote, “The editorial board exists to make judgments and speak for institutions. If the change in policy regarding presidential endorsements is based on some long-ignored principles of our past, why did the newspaper wait until only 11 days before the election to announce ?”
In a fun cartoon, Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Ann Telnaes depicts black paint titled “Democracy Dies in the Dark.”
“I was in the middle of finalizing another cartoon and texted my editor that I wanted to change my idea,” he wrote on Substack. “Grab a piece of bristol and a big brush, I paint what I feel.”
The Washington Post Guild leadership also said they were deeply concerned by the decision and how management interfered with the work of the Editorial Board. “We have seen cancellations from loyal readers. This decision damages the work of our members when we need to build the trust of our readers, it will not be lost,” he wrote in a statement.
Readers on social media said they had unsubscribed on Post and they came at a quick clip after the news of the decision broke. More than 1,600 people canceled their digital subscriptions in the first three hours, according to internal exchanges seen by NPR.
Post editor-at-large Robert Kagan also announced his resignation there after non-endorsement. In an interview with CNN, Kagan said the move showed Bezos’ relationship with Trump. “This is clearly an attempt by Bezos to try to get on Trump’s good side before he becomes president,” he said.
Bezos has significant business interests before the federal government involving billions of dollars a year, from Amazon’s shipping business and cloud computing services to the space company Blue Origin.
When Trump was in office, he threatened to review Amazon’s submission to the Pentagon for a $10 billion cloud computing contract — out of frustration Post her coverage. The Department of Defense even awarded the contract to Microsoft, surprising outside industry analysts. It later split into four companies, including Amazon, after filing a lawsuit.
On Friday, just hours after the Post’s announcement to disapprove, The Associated Press reported that Trump met with executives of Bezos’s Blue Origin, which has a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA.
Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate scandal, wrote in a joint statement: “We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the overwhelming reportorial evidence of the Washington Post. Donald Trump’s threat to democracy ,” CNN’s Brian Stelter said.
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and editor David Maraniss – who has been with the newspaper since 1977 and describes himself as a “Washington Post lifer” – wrote in X: “The decision all these years to not approve when democracy is on the line. is a disgrace. “
He then added, “The paper I loved working for 47 years died in obscurity.”
NPR’s David Folkenflik contributed reporting.
