The Washington Submit faces main backlash from readers and the employees of its editorial web page after it introduced on Friday that it could not endorse a candidate within the 2024 presidential election. The Los Angeles Instances lately made an identical assertion, reflecting concern within the mainstream media of opposing Donald Trump.
Trump has always threatened media retailers who’ve reported the reality about him and his insurance policies. He has mentioned he’ll file lawsuits, change libel legal guidelines, and pull broadcast licenses for reporting damaging details about him.
The Submit modified its slogan to “Democracy Dies in Darkness” in 2017, shortly after Trump took workplace. Now it has apparently chosen a unique path.
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election,” Submit writer and CEO William Lewis wrote in a be aware printed Friday.
Surprisingly, Lewis justified the paper’s resolution by claiming, “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.”
After all, Donald Trump has not embraced any of these values throughout his complete time in public life, whereas his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, has made them central to her marketing campaign.
In accordance to reporting from the Submit itself, the employees of the paper’s editorial web page had drafted an endorsement of Harris, which has now apparently been spiked. The paper additionally reviews that the choice in opposition to making an endorsement was made by the paper’s proprietor, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. Bezos’ aerospace firm Blue Origin, in addition to Amazon, which he based, has billions in authorities contracts that could possibly be impacted by a Trump presidency.
In 2020, the Submit endorsed President Joe Biden with an editorial labeling Trump “the worst president of modern times.”
Lewis was employed by Bezos to run the Submit in November 2023. Most notable in Lewis’ background was a stint working for Fox Information proprietor Rupert Murdoch at his agency Information Worldwide. Lewis has been accused by legal professionals in the UK of deceiving police who had been investigating Information Worldwide for its position in hacking the telephones of celebrities and crime victims.
The Submit’s govt editor, Sally Buzbee, stepped down in June after reportedly clashing with Lewis about plans to report on his time underneath Murdoch. NPR media reporter David Folkenflik alleged that Lewis promised him an unique interview in change for ignoring the scandal in a report on the paper.
Murdoch and his editors are notorious for selling conservative causes and politicians, each within the U.S. by way of Fox Information, The Wall Avenue Journal, and The New York Submit, in addition to internationally in retailers within the U.Okay. and Australia.
In a message to the Submit, former Submit govt editor Martin Baron reacted to the endorsement resolution, writing, “This is 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).”
“We are deeply concerned that The Washington Post—an American news institution in the nation’s capital—would make the decision to no longer endorse presidential candidates, especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election,” The Washington Submit Guild, the union representing staff on the paper, mentioned in a press release. “We are already seeing cancellations from once loyal readers. This decision undercuts the work of our members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it.”
Submit columnist Robert Kagan, an anti-Trump conservative, resigned in response to the announcement.
Subscribers additionally started posting pictures confirming that they had unsubscribed from the Submit. “No more Wash Post. Bowing to a fascist. They can take ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’ and shove it up their asses,” Sirius XM radio host Michelangelo Signorile wrote.
The information from the Submit echoes a call by Los Angeles Instances proprietor (and billionaire) Patrick Quickly-Shiong to dam the paper from making a presidential endorsement this yr. Mariel Garza, editorials editor of the paper, resigned in protest.
“I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent. In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up,” she advised the Columbia Journalism Evaluate.
Two extra members of the Instances editorial board stop after Garza.
In the meantime the Philadelphia Inquirer’s editorial board bucked the development and on Friday printed its endorsement of Harris: “America deserves much more than an aspiring autocrat who ignores the law, is running to stay out of prison, and doesn’t care about anyone but himself. The better angels of our nature demand it.”
