‘Washington Post’ columnists push back against non-endorsement decision

A rising variety of present and former journalists at The Washington Submit are criticizing the legacy newspaper after proprietor Jeff Bezos determined to withhold a deliberate editorial endorsement for president for the primary time in 36 years.

“The Washington Submit’s determination to not make an endorsement within the presidential marketing campaign is a horrible mistake,” stated a joint column that had been signed by 17 Submit columnists as of Saturday afternoon.

The opinion piece, printed on the paper’s web site, argued that presidential endorsements function a reminder to readers of what the Submit stands for. It declared that the paper can’t retreat from the its accountability to face up for core democratic values threatened by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Its editorials have repeatedly warned that Trump is unfit for workplace.

“An unbiased newspaper may sometime select to again away from making presidential endorsements. However this isn’t the proper second, when one candidate is advocating positions that straight threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Structure,” the column added. It was signed by among the Submit‘s most outstanding writers, together with Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson, David Ignatius and Jennifer Rubin.

NPR first broke information of Bezos’ determination. The column arrived simply hours after writer William Lewis made the announcement Friday afternoon. In his personal opinion piece, Lewis defined that the Submit didn’t routinely make endorsements till 1976. He stated it was time to return to that custom and assist “readers’ skill to make up their very own minds.”

The Submit had drafted an editorial endorsement for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris earlier this month. But it surely was finally scrapped by the paper’s billionaire proprietor Bezos, additionally the Amazon founder, the Submit reported. The Submit’s revelation got here simply days after it was reported that the Los Angeles Occasions proprietor Patrick Quickly-Shiong blocked the paper’s Editorial Board from endorsing Harris.

A screenshot of Ann Telnaes’ cartoon following The Washington Submit‘s announcement to not make a presidential endorsement.

The Washington Submit/Screenshot by NPR

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The Washington Submit/Screenshot by NPR

Two different columns printed on Friday expressed frustration with the Submit’s determination. “I’ve by no means been extra disillusioned within the newspaper than I’m at this time,” wrote editor and columnist Ruth Marcus. “This isn’t the time to make such a shift. It’s the time to talk out, as loudly and convincingly as attainable, to make the case that we made in 2016 and once more in 2020: that Trump is dangerously unfit to carry the best workplace within the land.”

Editor and columnist Karen Tumulty wrote, “Editorial boards exist to make judgments and to talk for the establishment. If this modification in coverage concerning presidential endorsements was a stand on some long-ignored precept of our previous, why did the newspaper wait till simply 11 days earlier than the election to announce it?”

In a chilling cartoon, Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Ann Telnaes depicted broad strokes of black paint with the title “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

“I used to be in the course of finishing the ultimate of one other cartoon and texted my editor that I needed to alter my thought,” she wrote on Substack. “Grabbing a bit of bristol and a big brush, I painted what I felt.”

The Washington Submit Guild management additionally stated they have been deeply troubled by the choice and the way administration interfered with the work of the Editorial Board. “We’re already seeing cancellations from as soon as loyal readers. This determination undercuts the work of our members at a time once we must be constructing our readers’ belief, not dropping it,” they wrote in an announcement.

Readers on social media stated that they had canceled their subscriptions to the Submit and so they got here at a quick clip after information of the choice broke. Greater than 1,600 individuals canceled digital subscriptions within the first three hours, in keeping with inner exchanges reviewed by NPR.

Submit editor-at-large Robert Kagan additionally introduced his resignation on Friday following the non-endorsement. In an interview with CNN, Kagan stated the transfer indicated Bezos’ regarding relationship with Trump. “That is clearly an effort by Bezos to attempt to get on Trump’s good facet upfront of his presidency,” he stated.

Bezos holds important enterprise pursuits earlier than the federal authorities that contain billions of {dollars} every year, from Amazon’s transport enterprise and cloud computing companies to his Blue Origin house firm.

When Trump was in workplace, he threatened to personally evaluation Amazon’s submission to the Pentagon for a cloud computing contract price $10 billion — out of frustration of the Submit’s protection of him. The Protection Division as a substitute awarded the contract to Microsoft, shocking outdoors business analysts. It was later divvied up amongst 4 firms, together with Amazon, after it filed a lawsuit.

On Friday, simply hours after the Submit’s announcement to not endorse, The Related Press reported that Trump met with executives of Bezos’s Blue Origin, which has a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA.

Submit reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who cracked the Watergate scandal, wrote in a joint assertion: “We respect the standard independence of the editorial web page, however this determination 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Submit’s personal overwhelming reportorial proof on the menace Donald Trump poses to democracy,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reported.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor David Maraniss — who has been on the paper since 1977 and describes himself as a “Washington Submit lifer” — wrote on X: “The choice on this of all years to not endorse when democracy is on the road is contemptible.”

He later added, “The paper I’ve liked working at for 47 years is dying in darkness.”

NPR’s David Folkenflik contributed reporting.