The Washington Post is getting out of the business of endorsing candidates for president, starting with the upcoming election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris — and the decision was reportedly made by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns the Post.
A story Friday in the newspaper’s own Style section reported that an endorsement of Harris had been drafted by Post editorial page staffers, and that the call to not publish it was made by Bezos, according to unnamed sources at the paper.
In a published note on Friday, Publisher and CEO William Lewis relayed the new directive.
“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election,” Lewis wrote. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
The move, just 11 days before Election Day, bucks decades of tradition at the Post, which has endorsed candidates since 1976, when it backed Jimmy Carter. Prior to that, the newspaper avoided endorsements, with the exception of 1952 when it endorsed Dwight Eisenhower.
The stance drew swift reaction online, with some saying they would be cancelling their subscription.
And former Post editor Marty Baron, who retired in 2021, blasted the move. In a post on X, Baron called the decision “cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” adding that it was “disturbing spinlessness at an institution famed for courage.” Baron also said Trump will see the move as an opportunity to “further intimidate” Bezos.
Bezos purchased the Post for $250 million in August 2013.
Before he stepped aside, Baron discussed his time working for the billionaire owner and how he reshaped the paper’s focus. In his view, he said, Bezos bought the Post because “he actually believes in the mission of journalism; that he thinks it’s really important for a democracy; that he believes in democracy quite firmly.”
The Post’s motto, printed on its masthead, is “Democracy dies in darkness.”
The non-endorsement decision follows a similar move by The Los Angeles Times. The editorials editor at that paper resigned after billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked a plan to endorse Harris.
NPR reported that Washington Post staffers learned of the decision at a “tense meeting” with editorial page editor David Shipley.
NPR also pointed out that Bezos “has major contracts before the federal government in his other business operations, with billion-dollar implications affecting Amazon’s shipping business and cloud computing services as well as his Blue Origin space company.”
Bezos’ most recent post on X is from July 13, after the assassination attempt on Trump in Pennsylvania.
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