The Washington Put up Constructing in Washington, D.C., on June 5.
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Andrew Harnik/Getty Pictures
A rising variety of present and former journalists at The Washington Put up are criticizing the legacy newspaper after proprietor Jeff Bezos determined to withhold a deliberate editorial endorsement for president for the primary time in 36 years.
“The Washington Put up’s choice to not make an endorsement within the presidential marketing campaign is a horrible mistake,” mentioned a joint column that had been signed by 17 Put up columnists as of Saturday afternoon.
The opinion piece, revealed on the paper’s web site, argued that presidential endorsements function a reminder to readers of what the Put up stands for. It declared that the paper can’t retreat from the its duty to face up for core democratic values threatened by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Its editorials have repeatedly warned that Trump is unfit for workplace.
“An unbiased newspaper would possibly sometime select to again away from making presidential endorsements. However this isn’t the best second, when one candidate is advocating positions that immediately threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Structure,” the column added. It was signed by a number of the Put up‘s most distinguished writers, together with Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson, David Ignatius and Jennifer Rubin.
NPR first broke news of Bezos’ choice. The column arrived simply hours after writer William Lewis made the announcement Friday afternoon. In his personal opinion piece, Lewis explained that the Put up didn’t routinely make endorsements till 1976. He mentioned it was time to return to that custom and assist “readers’ means to make up their very own minds.”
The Put up had drafted an editorial endorsement for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris earlier this month. However it was finally scrapped by the paper’s billionaire proprietor Bezos, additionally the Amazon founder, the Put up reported. The Put up’s revelation got here simply days after it was reported that the Los Angeles Instances proprietor Patrick Quickly-Shiong blocked the paper’s Editorial Board from endorsing Harris.
A screenshot of Ann Telnaes’ cartoon following The Washington Put up‘s announcement to not make a presidential endorsement.
The Washington Put up/Screenshot by NPR
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The Washington Put up/Screenshot by NPR
Two different columns revealed on Friday expressed frustration with the Put up’s choice. “I’ve by no means been extra disillusioned within the newspaper than I’m right this moment,” wrote editor and columnist Ruth Marcus. “This isn’t the time to make such a shift. It’s the time to talk out, as loudly and convincingly as potential, to make the case that we made in 2016 and once more in 2020: that Trump is dangerously unfit to carry the best workplace within the land.”
Editor and columnist Karen Tumulty wrote, “Editorial boards exist to make judgments and to talk for the establishment. If this transformation in coverage relating to presidential endorsements was a stand on some long-ignored precept of our previous, why did the newspaper wait till simply 11 days earlier than the election to announce it?”
In a chilling cartoon, Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Ann Telnaes depicted broad strokes of black paint with the title “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”
“I used to be in the course of finishing the ultimate of one other cartoon and texted my editor that I wished to vary my concept,” she wrote on Substack. “Grabbing a bit of bristol and a big brush, I painted what I felt.”
The Washington Put up Guild management additionally mentioned they had been deeply troubled by the choice and the way administration interfered with the work of the Editorial Board. “We’re already seeing cancellations from as soon as loyal readers. This choice undercuts the work of our members at a time once we ought to be constructing our readers’ belief, not shedding it,” they wrote in a press release.
Readers on social media mentioned that they had canceled their subscriptions to the Put up and so they got here at a quick clip after information of the choice broke. Greater than 1,600 folks canceled digital subscriptions within the first three hours, in line with inner exchanges reviewed by NPR.
Put up editor-at-large Robert Kagan additionally introduced his resignation on Friday following the non-endorsement. In an interview with CNN, Kagan mentioned the transfer indicated Bezos’ regarding relationship with Trump. “That is clearly an effort by Bezos to attempt to get on Trump’s good aspect upfront of his presidency,” he mentioned.
Bezos holds vital enterprise pursuits earlier than the federal authorities that contain billions of {dollars} annually, from Amazon’s transport enterprise and cloud computing providers to his Blue Origin area firm.
When Trump was in workplace, he threatened to personally evaluate Amazon’s submission to the Pentagon for a cloud computing contract value $10 billion — out of frustration of the Put up’s protection of him. The Protection Division as a substitute awarded the contract to Microsoft, shocking exterior trade analysts. It was later divvied up amongst 4 corporations, together with Amazon, after it filed a lawsuit.
On Friday, simply hours after the Put up’s announcement to not endorse, The Related Press reported that Trump met with executives of Bezos’s Blue Origin, which has a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA.
Put up reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who cracked the Watergate scandal, wrote in a joint assertion: “We respect the normal 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,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reported.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor David Maraniss — who has been on the paper since 1977 and describes himself as a “Washington Put up lifer” — wrote on X: “The choice on this of all years to not endorse when democracy is on the road is contemptible.”
He later added, “The paper I’ve cherished working at for 47 years is dying in darkness.”
NPR’s David Folkenflik contributed reporting.
