Oct. 25 (UPI) — The Washington Post revealed Friday it will not make an endorsement for the 2024 presidential election, breaking a tradition at the newspaper that goes back to the 1980s.
Publisher Will Lewis wrote in a Post opinion piece that the decision to not endorse either Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican opponent Donald Trump represents a return “to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
Throughout most of its 147-year history, the newspaper’s editorial page did not make presidential endorsements. That changed in 1988 and the Post has issued endorsements in every election since then.
But that streak will end this year and the new policy will remain in effect for “any future presidential election,” Lewis wrote, even as Harris and Trump head down the final stretch in a neck-and-neck contest.
“We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility,” he wrote. “That is inevitable.”
But, he added, “We don’t see it that way. 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.
“We also see it as a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions — whom to vote for as the next president.”
He concluded, “Most of all, our job as the newspaper of the capital city of the most important country in the world is to be independent.
“And that is what we are and will be.”
In its own story on the decision, the Post reported the move was made by its owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. It quoted former Post executive editor Martin Baron as calling the move an act of “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). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
The newspaper’s editorial board had drafted an endorsement of Harris and was getting ready to publish it when the decision was issued, CNN reported, citing “a person with knowledge of the matter.”
The move comes against a backdrop of previous clashes between Bezos and Trump during the Republican’s 2016-2020 presidency. In 2019, Amazon accused Trump of engaging in a “personal vendetta” against Bezos, Amazon and the Post, resulting in it being passed over for a $10 billion Pentagon cloud computing contract.
The former president also frequently criticized Bezos in his social media feeds, accusing Amazon of not paying its fair share of taxes and calling the Post “fake news.”
Lewis’ decision to not to endorse came two days after Mariel Garcia, the editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Times, resigned following a similar decision by that newspaper’s owner not to endorse a nominee for president.
The Times had endorsed a Democratic candidate for the past four presidential elections.
“The non-endorsement undermines the integrity of the editorial board and every single endorsement we make, down to school board races,” Garza wrote in her resignation letter. “People will justifiably wonder if each endorsement was a decision by a group of journalists after extensive research and discussion, or through decree by the owner.”
