Washington Post columnists opposed the decision not to support

A growing number of current and former journalists in Washington Post criticism of the legacy newspaper after its owner Jeff Bezos decided to withhold planned editorial support from the president for the first time in 36 years.

“The Washington Post’s decision not to endorse the president’s campaign is a terrible mistake,” he said. said joint column which was signed 17 Mail reviewers as of Saturday afternoon.

An article published on the newspaper’s website argues that the president’s support serves as a reminder to readers that Mail means. He said the newspaper cannot shirk its responsibility to defend core democratic values ​​that are being threatened by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Editorials have repeatedly warned that Trump is unfit for office.

“Independent newspaper may someday refuse to support the president. But this is not the right time for one candidate to champion positions that directly threaten freedom of the press and the values ​​of the Constitution,” the column said. It was signed by some of MailRussia’s most distinguished writers, including Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson, David Ignatius and Jennifer Rubin.

NPR first sensational news Bezos’ decisions. The column appeared just hours after publisher William Lewis made the announcement Friday afternoon. In his own opinion, Lewis explained What Mail generally did not give approvals until 1976. He said it was time to return to that tradition and support “readers’ ability to make their own decisions.”

Mail earlier this month produced an editorial endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. But it was eventually abandoned by the newspaper’s owner, billionaire Bezos, who is also the founder of Amazon. Mail reported. The Post’s report comes just days after it was reported that Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong blocked The newspaper’s editorial board refused to support Harris.

Two other columns published Friday expressed disappointment over Fast solution. “I have never been more disappointed in a newspaper than I am today.” wrote editor and columnist Ruth Marcus. “Now is not the time to make such a shift. It’s time to say as loudly and forcefully as possible what we did in 2016 and again in 2020: that Trump is dangerously unfit to hold the highest office.” office on the ground.”

Editor and columnist Karen Tumulty wrote“Editorial boards exist to make judgments and speak on behalf of the institution. If this change in policy regarding presidential support was a position on some long-ignored principle of our past, why did the newspaper wait until just 11 days before the election to announce the election? This?”

Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Ann Telnaes created a chilling cartoon of the words “Democracy Dies in Darkness” in broad strokes of black paint.

“I was finishing the ending of another cartoon and wrote to my editor that I wanted to change my idea,” she wrote on the page Substack. “Taking a piece of bristol and a big brush, I painted what I felt.”

The Washington Post Guild also said it was deeply concerned about the decision and how management interfered with the work of the editorial board. “We are already seeing abandonments from once loyal readers. This decision undermines the work of our members at a time when we should be building trust with our readers, not losing it,” they wrote in a statement.

Readers on social networks reported that they had unsubscribed from Mail and they accelerated after the decision became known. More than 1,600 people canceled digital subscriptions in the first three hours, according to internal communications analyzed by NPR.

Mail editor-in-chief Robert Kagan also announced his resignation on Friday due to disapproval. In an interview with CNN, Kagan said the move points to Bezos’ concerns about his relationship with Trump. “This is clearly an attempt by Bezos to try to get on Trump’s side ahead of his presidency,” he said.

Bezos has significant business interests with the federal government that total billions of dollars annually, from Amazon’s shipping business and cloud computing services to his space company Blue Origin.

When Trump was in office, he threatened to personally review Amazon’s bid to the Pentagon for a $10 billion cloud computing contract – out of frustration Fast lighting it. Instead, the Defense Department awarded the contract to Microsoft, surprising outside industry analysts. It was later split between four companies, including Amazon, after the lawsuit was filed.

On Friday, just hours after the Post announced it was withdrawing its support, the Associated Press reported that Trump met with executives from Bezos’ Blue Origin company, which has a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA.

Mail Reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the Watergate scandal, wrote in a joint statement: “We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision, made 11 days before the 2024 presidential election, ignores the overwhelming amount of the Washington Post’s own reporting about the threat. “What Donald Trump represents for democracy” – CNN’s Brian Stelter. reported.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor David Maraniss, who has been with the paper since 1977 and calls himself a “Washington Post lifer,” wrote: X: “This year’s decision not to support when democracy is at stake is contemptible.”

Later he added“The newspaper I loved working for for 47 years is dying in darkness.”

NPR’s David Folkenflik contributed reporting.

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