The Washington Post will not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president, according to the paper’s editorial board on Friday.
It will be the first time in 36 years that the paper has not endorsed a presidential candidate, a blow to Harris who is already suffering from not being endorsed by the L.A. Times, her hometown paper.
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The decision allegedly involved Jeff Bezos, who reportedly ordered the non-endorsement with the early vote trends appearing to favor former President Donald Trump. Bezos, the owner of the paper, has several large contracts with the U.S. government.
NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflik reported on the decision, which appears to have “shocked” the paper’s left-leaning newsroom:
The editorial page editor, David Shipley, told colleagues that the Post‘s publisher, Will Lewis, would publish a note to readers online early Friday afternoon.
Shipley told colleagues the editorial board was told yesterday by management that there would not be an endorsement. He added that he “owns” this decision. The reason he cited was to create “independent space” where the newspaper does not tell people for whom to vote.
Colleagues were said to be “shocked” and uniformly negative. Post corporate spokespeople have not responded to multiple messages left by NPR on the subject.
Folkenflik posted a thread on X, further reporting about the inner politics of a “tense meeting” that shaped the decision and perhaps involved Jeff Bezos:
It is not clear whether Post owner Jeff Bezos or Publisher/CEO Will Lewis made the call Shipley said the paper wanted to give readers an “independent” space in which to decide [f]or whom to vote on their own /MORE
The decision was revealed in a tense meeting with people on the editorial staff [sic] And it arrives at a time of heightened concern over whether news outles are pulling their punches in order to appease Trump in final days of a neck and neck presidential race agst VP Harris MORE
Post owner Jeff Bezos picked his new publisher/CEO Will Lewis in part because of pedigree in dealing with conservative power centers: Lewis was editor of conservative Telegraph in UK he was publisher of Murdoch’s WSJ He was a consultant to Conservative PM Boris Johnson MORE
I’m told by person with direct knowledge that Shipley implies that Bezos ordered the decision and Lewis carried it out. Lewis is to publish an explanation to readers shortly, I’m told. (So far the WaPo has not answered my requests for comment.) MORE
Marty Baron, retired exeutive editor of the Washington Post, had this to say on X:
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
