Washington Put up CEO Williams Lewis mentioned he pulled the plug on the paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris – amid fierce backlash that proprietor Jeff Bezos was accountable for the controversial choice.
Lewis rejected claims the Amazon billionaire killed the already deliberate endorsement for the Democratic nominee – breaking 36 years of custom on the paper – simply 11 days earlier than the 2024 election, stressing that he himself is towards presidential endorsements.
“Reporting across the position of The Washington Put up proprietor and the choice to not publish a presidential endorsement has been inaccurate,” Lewis mentioned in a press release, in accordance with The Each day Beast.
“He was not despatched, didn’t learn and didn’t opine on any draft. As Writer, I don’t consider in presidential endorsements. We’re an impartial newspaper and will help our readers’ means to make up their very own minds.”
Friday’s choice – which may also stand for “any future presidential election,” in accordance with Lewis – follows the Los Angels Occasions, whose billionaire proprietor, Patrick Quickly-Shiong, additionally declined to problem an endorsement, resulting in a flood of resignations from its editorial board.
Following the announcement, the newspaper printed an article written by two reporters saying that editorial web page staffers had already drafted an endorsement for Harris over former President Donald Trump, and had been awaiting approval from Lewis and Bezos earlier than it was squashed.
One WashPo editor, Robert Kagan, has already resigned over the choice, whereas 2,000 readers canceled their subscriptions inside 24 hours, which one staffer mentioned was “an unusually excessive quantity,” Semafor reported.
Livid high-profile staffers have additionally taken to social media blasting Friday’s announcement.
“I didn’t signal as much as be a journalist to be silent on what issues most. I didn’t come right here to be a coward. A few of us actually, actually consider in talking reality to energy. We had been betrayed right this moment,” Washington Put up columnist Karen Attiah wrote on X Friday.
Marty Baron, the previous editor of The Washington Put up, known as the paper’s choice “cowardice, with democracy at its casualty.”
Famed Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein additionally criticized the choice to maintain the Washington Put up impartial within the 2024 presidential race by declining to endorse Harris for president.
“We respect the standard independence of the editorial web page, however this choice 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Put up’s personal overwhelming reportorial proof on the risk Donald Trump poses to democracy,” the pair mentioned in a press release printed by CNN Friday.
Bezos, who purchased the Washington Put up in 2013, has not publicly weighed in on the presidential election, amid claims by some WashPo insider who speculate Bezos doesn’t wish to alienate Trump as he positive aspects momentum to recapture the White Home.
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