The influential Washington Post newspaper, owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, announced on Friday that it will support neither Democrat Kamala Harris nor Republican Donald Trump in the US presidential election.
CEO William Lewis said it was a “return to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates”.
However, before deciding to stay on the sidelines in one of the most polarizing elections in American history, the Post editorial board has endorsed most candidates over the past four decades — all of them Democrats.
Newspaper editorials have lost much of their once powerful political power. But the Post – whose slogan is “Democracy dies in the dark” – is a traditional media outlet that retains influence among Washington’s elite.
Trump’s campaign quickly followed suit and shouted that “Harris is so bad, The Washington Post decided never to endorse another presidential candidate again.”
The Washington Post Guild, which represents unionized employees at the newspaper, said it was “deeply concerned.”
“We are already seeing cancellations from loyal readers,” it said in a statement.
US media reported that a senior figure at the Post, editor at large Robert Kagan, had resigned in protest.
– Billionaire owner –
The Post’s decision follows a similar move by another major US newspaper, the Los Angeles Times.
The Times’ billionaire owner blocked the editorial board from issuing an endorsement for Harris, according to editorial editor Mariel Garza, who resigned in response on Wednesday.
According to a report on The Washington Post’s website, Bezos also intervened to prevent the board from publishing its editorial in favor of Harris. However, a source close to the Post’s leadership told AFP that this was “incorrect.”
In contrast, The New York Times endorsed Harris in September, calling her “the only patriotic choice for president” and warning that “it is difficult to imagine a candidate more unfit to serve as President of the United States than Trump.” It is difficult”.
On Friday, Harris also endorsed The Philadelphia Inquirer, the largest newspaper in swing state Pennsylvania, which declared that “voters face a simple but tectonic choice.”
Republicans got their own boost on Friday from the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid New York Post, which declared that “America is poised to reclaim Donald Trump’s presidency today.”
– ‘Cowardice’? ,
In a statement, The Washington Post’s Lewis wrote that the newspaper would not endorse the president again.
He said, “Our job at The Washington Post is to provide non-partisan news for all Americans through the newsroom, and to provide thought-provoking, reported ideas from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds. Is.”
The Post has consistently endorsed Democratic candidates since the 1980s, and has always made clear that the editorial board operates separately from the news-gathering operation – as is typical of American news organizations.
The Post’s former executive editor, Marty Baron, criticized the daily’s “cowardice with murdering democracy.”
Barron said Trump would view the decision “as an invitation to further intimidate Bezos.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
