'Cowardice': Washington Post faces backlash after refusing to endorse in presidential race

25 October 2024

For the first time in 36 years The Washington Post, owned by billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will not endorse a candidate in the presidential race. The move is infuriating critics, democracy advocates, and everyday Americans who point to the paper’s official slogan: “Democracy dies in darkness.”

“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” The Post’s publisher and CEO, William Lewis, wrote in an opinion piece Friday. He added: “our job as the newspaper of the capital city of the most important country in the world is to be independent.”

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik writes, “The decision was revealed in a tense meeting with people on the editorial staff. And it arrives at a time of heightened concern over whether news [outlets] are pulling their punches in order to appease Trump in final days of a neck and neck presidential race [against] VP Harris.”

“It is not clear whether Post owner Jeff Bezos or Publisher/CEO Will Lewis made the call,” Folkenflik adds. “I’m told by person with direct knowledge that [editorial page editor David] Shipley implies that Bezos ordered the decision and Lewis carried it out.”

Former Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron told Folkenflik, “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),” Baron added. “History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

Columbia Journalism Review executive editor Sewell Chan reports, “The Washington Post opinion editor approved a Harris endorsement. A week later, the paper’s publisher killed it.”

The massive deluge of comments criticizing The Washington Post’s decision to not endorse either candidate flooded the paper’s comments section, thousands in just the first hour, seemingly dozens if not hundreds by the minute at one point, with many vowing to cancel their subscriptions.

Anger also flooded social media.

One user on the social media platform X wrote: “An outrageous abdication of responsibility. Tyranny vs freedom – it’s an obvious choice. Perhaps it’s the ‘anticipatory obedience’ that scholars on tyranny warn us about.”

Michael McDonald, a professor of political science who specializes in American elections wrote: “Democracy Dies In Darkness Isn’t a motto for the Washington Post, It’s a mantra.”

U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) wrote: “The first step towards fascism is when the free press cowers in fear.”

Political scientist Norman Ornstein, a contributing editor at The Atlantic offered a deep dive (thread).

“Let’s unpack this,” Dr. Ornstein writes. “Donald Trump just referred again to the press as ‘the enemy of the people. He has promised to lock up his adversaries, ‘the enemy within.’ Pledged to forcibly deport 12 million or more immigrants, legal or not, first putting them in detention camps.”

“He has expressed admiration for Hitler, wants generals like Hitler had. He is talking regularly to Netanyahu, urging him to do nothing to help Biden. He talks to Putin, pledges to blow up NATO, shows increasing signs of mental decline. He is a narcissistic sociopath & grifter,” Ornstein continues. “He has been convicted on 34 felony accounts and adjudicated rapist. He praises the Supreme Court for Dobbs, said he would pardon violent insurrectionists, absconded with our most important secrets. He called our heroes who died for the country suckers and losers.”

“Top military leaders say flatly he is a fascist. Dozens of those who worked closely with him in his presidency have denounced him. He is a serial liar, represents an existential threat to democracy. I could go on. But the point is @washingtonpost knows all that.”

“It is a breathtaking show of cowardice and irresponsibility if the nation’s newspaper refuses to make an endorsement in this existential election. Will Lewis, Jeff Bezos, David Shipley are all complicit in this. Shame on them all.”

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