Last week, one of the big media stories was about billionaire LA Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong ordering the LAT to dump their presidential endorsement because he’s tight with Elon Musk and Donald Trump. The LA Times’ editorship and staff is still in revolt. Then the Washington Post said “hold my beer.” WaPo is owned by Jeff Bezos, who is not particularly close to Donald Trump or his lil’ apartheid buddy Elon. But Bezos also wanted to hedge his bets in case Donald Trump does win. So instead of allowing WaPo’s staff and editors to stand on business against an insurrectionist, white nationalist fascist, Bezos ordered WaPo to skip the presidential endorsement.
The Washington Post, which adopted the tagline “Democracy Dies in Darkness” during Donald Trump’s presidency, has opted to not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, publisher and CEO of the newspaper William Lewis announced Friday in a note to readers. Lewis, who joined the Post in January, wrote that the paper is “returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” pointing to editorials from 1960 and 1972 as instances in which the paper explained its rationale for not doing so. Lewis argued that the Post “had it right before” 1976, when the editorial board endorsed Jimmy Carter for president. The Post has endorsed every cycle since then with the exception of 1988.
“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. That is inevitable,” Lewis writes, adding, “We don’t see it that way.”
Others clearly did. “This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty,” Marty Baron, the Post’s former executive editor, said in a statement to Vanity Fair. “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.”
“These decisions are appalling, a dereliction of duty, and a disturbing statement of the priorities of two newspapers that are owned by billionaires,” Margaret Sullivan, a former New York Times public editor and Post media columnist, who currently writes a politics and media column for The Guardian US, tells me.
Inside the Post, NPR’s David Folkenflik reported, editorial page editor David Shipley relayed the decision to staff in a “tense meeting” just before Lewis announced it publicly. While staffers were reportedly taken aback by the change, Shipley reportedly said that he “owns” the decision and that it was intended to allow the paper to remain “independent,” language that was also used by Lewis in his letter to readers.
Two Post board members, Charles Lane and Stephen W. Stromberg had already drafted a Harris endorsement when the process stalled, prior to Friday’s announcement, according to Columbia Journalism Review executive editor Sewell Chan. He added that the decision, which was approved by Shipley, has “angered” staffers.
I don’t doubt that both Jeff Bezos and Will Lewis had a hand in this. Bezos met with Donald Trump late last week, and there’s clearly some “business” at hand between the two men. Meanwhile, Will Lewis is a Murdoch lackey and part of the right-wing British invasion of American media. Lewis wants Trump to win – Bezos simply doesn’t want to piss off Trump if he wins. After it was widely reported that Bezos personally quashed the WaPo endorsement, Will Lewis fell on his sword in a statement to CNN: “Reporting around the role of The Washington Post owner and the decision not to publish a presidential endorsement has been inaccurate. He was not sent, did not read and did not opine on any draft. As Publisher, I do not believe in presidential endorsements. We are an independent newspaper and should support our readers’ ability to make up their own minds.” The Trump campaign has already declared the lack of endorsements a “humiliating blow” for VP Harris.
WaPo’s columnist Robert Kagan publicly resigned on Friday, saying: “This is obviously an effort by Jeff Bezos to curry favor with Donald Trump in the anticipation of his possible victory. Trump has threatened to go after Bezos’ business. Bezos runs one of the largest companies in America. They have tremendously intricate relations with federal government. They depend on the federal government.” Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein released a joint statement saying the decision was “surprising and disappointing,” and the timing of the announcement “ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.”
Meanwhile, thousands of people have canceled their WaPo subscriptions. There will be larger repercussions for the Washington Post financially in the immediate future. I’m sure Will Lewis will use that as an opportunity to fire a lot of journalists.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images.