The Washington Post faces major backlash from readers and the staff of its editorial page after it announced on Friday that it would not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. The Los Angeles Times recently made a similar statement, reflecting fear in the mainstream media of opposing Donald Trump.
Trump has constantly threatened media outlets who have reported the truth about him and his policies. He has said he will file lawsuits, change libel laws, and pull broadcast licenses for reporting negative facts about him.
The Post changed its slogan to “Democracy Dies in Darkness” in 2017, shortly after Trump took office. Now it has apparently chosen a different direction.
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election,” Post publisher and CEO William Lewis wrote in a note published Friday.
Strangely, Lewis justified the paper’s decision by claiming, “We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects.”
Of course, Donald Trump has not embraced any of those values during his entire time in public life, while his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has made them central to her campaign.
According to reporting from the Post itself, the staff of the paper’s editorial page had drafted an endorsement of Harris, which has now apparently been spiked. The paper also reports that the decision against making an endorsement was made by the paper’s owner, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. Bezos’ aerospace company Blue Origin, as well as Amazon, which he founded, has billions in government contracts that could be impacted by a Trump presidency.
In 2020, the Post endorsed President Joe Biden with an editorial labeling Trump “the worst president of modern times.”
Lewis was hired by Bezos to run the Post in November 2023. Most notable in Lewis’ background was a stint working for Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch at his firm News International. Lewis has been accused by lawyers in the United Kingdom of deceiving police who were investigating News International for its role in hacking the phones of celebrities and crime victims.
The Post’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, stepped down in June after reportedly clashing with Lewis about plans to report on his time under Murdoch. NPR media reporter David Folkenflik alleged that Lewis promised him an exclusive interview in exchange for ignoring the scandal in a report on the paper.
Murdoch and his editors are infamous for promoting conservative causes and politicians, both in the U.S. via Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post, as well as internationally in outlets in the U.K. and Australia.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, owner of The Washington Post
In a message to the Post, former Post executive editor Martin Baron reacted to the endorsement decision, writing, “This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty. Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners).”
“We are deeply concerned that The Washington Post—an American news institution in the nation's capital—would make the decision to no longer endorse presidential candidates, especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election,” The Washington Post Guild, the union representing workers at the paper, said in a statement. “We are already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers. This decision undercuts the work of our members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it.”
Post columnist Robert Kagan, an anti-Trump conservative, resigned in response to the announcement.
Subscribers also began posting photos confirming they had unsubscribed from the Post. “No more Wash Post. Bowing to a fascist. They can take ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ and shove it up their asses,” Sirius XM radio host Michelangelo Signorile wrote.
The news from the Post echoes a decision by Los Angeles Times owner (and billionaire) Patrick Soon-Shiong to block the paper from making a presidential endorsement this year. Mariel Garza, editorials editor of the paper, resigned in protest.
“I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up,” she told the Columbia Journalism Review.
Two more members of the Times editorial board quit after Garza.
Meanwhile the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board bucked the trend and on Friday published its endorsement of Harris: “America deserves much more than an aspiring autocrat who ignores the law, is running to stay out of prison, and doesn’t care about anyone but himself. The better angels of our nature demand it.”
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