Major US newspaper, Washington Post has declined to throw its weight behind either Trump or Harris.
For the first time since the 1980s, the Washington Post said that it will not endorse any US presidential candidate this year nor in any future presidential elections.
Most expected the Post to endorse the Democratic candidate and much speculation in the media has occurred as to why that paper had yet to do it, with some blaming the paper’s billionaire owner, Jeff Bezos.
The Washington Post has a long history of endorsing Democrats, with the paper backing Obama in 2008 and 2012, Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020.
A note from publisher, Will Lewis posted on X on Friday, October 25, 2024, said, “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”
“We recognize that this will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or as a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way. 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. We also see it as a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions – whom to vote for as the next President.”
Will Lewis
The piece went on to tout the decision as an assertion of the paper’s independence and impartiality. “Our job at The Washington Post is to provide through the newsroom non-partisan news for all Americans, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds,” Lewis noted.
“Most of all, our job as the newspaper of the capital city of the most important country in the world is to be independent. And that is what we are and will be.”
Will Lewis
Disquiet Over The Washington Post’s Announcement
There is welling disquiet over the Washington Post’s announcement that it will decline to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in this election.
A former long-serving Senior Editor from the paper called it “appalling,” especially “given the choice this year.” Robert McCartney has previously speculated that the Post would endorse Harris and also had heard on the grapevine that they would dodge.
Also, Marty Baron, the distinguished former Editor of the Washington Post, excoriated his old employer’s decision not to endorse either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump in next month’s presidential election.
Baron, who was editor of the Boston Globe before he moved to the capital to run the Post in 2013 – both of which publications have won Pulitzer prizes under his leadership – called the Post’s move to avoid picking a favored nominee for the White House “cowardice.”
He posted on X that it represented “Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
Additionally, Senior Democratic figure, Susan Rice, who was US Ambassador to the United Nations and National Security Adviser under Barack Obama and then Director of the US domestic policy council under Joe Biden, made a blistering post on X about the Washington Post.
Referring to the newspaper’s slogan, she stated, “So much for ‘Democracy Dies in Darkness’.”
She continued, “This is the most hypocritical, chicken shit move from a publication that is supposed to hold people in power to account.”
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