“Cowardice”: Washington Post Blasted for Not Endorsing in 2024

The Washington Post, which adopted the tagline “Democracy Dies in Darkness” during Donald Trump’s presidency, has opted to not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, publisher and CEO of the newspaper William Lewis announced Friday in a note to readers.

Lewis, who joined the Post in January, wrote that the paper is “returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” pointing to editorials from 1960 and 1972 as instances in which the paper explained its rationale for not doing so. Lewis argued that the Post “had it right before” 1976, when the editorial board endorsed Jimmy Carter for president. The Post has endorsed every cycle since then with the exception of 1988.

“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,” Lewis writes, adding, “We don’t see it that way.”

Others clearly did. “This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty,” Marty Baron, the Post’s former executive editor, said in a statement to Vanity Fair. “Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

Tommy Vietor, a former Barack Obama staffer and Pod Save America cohost, wrote on X that the Post “endorsing [Kamala] Harris would move exactly zero voters her way, but still lol at this cowardly shit from the crew that brought us ‘democracy dies in darkness.’”

NBC’s Chuck Todd, while admitting to be “agnostic about the impact of newspaper endorsements,” wrote on X that “the unintended consequence of this decision…is exactly what makes this all so demoralizing to actual working journalists. When rich guys and publicly traded companies cower, it hurts all of us.”

The Post’s decision comes on the heels of the Los Angeles Times editorial board breaking with recent tradition in not endorsing a 2024 presidential candidate, a controversial move by its billionaire owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong. The Times’ editorials editor, Mariel Garza, resigned Wednesday in protest, with two editorial members, Robert Greene and Karin Klein, following Thursday.

While it’s arguable whether newspaper editorials—which are produced by the opinion side of the operation—actually sway voters, especially as Americans’ views seem locked in less than two weeks out from Election Day, it is striking to see two of the nation’s most prominent publications, each of which endorsed Hillary Clinton (2016) and Joe Biden (2020), sitting out the 2024 race.

“These decisions are appalling, a dereliction of duty, and a disturbing statement of the priorities of two newspapers that are owned by billionaires,” Margaret Sullivan, a former New York Times public editor and Post media columnist, who currently writes a politics and media column for The Guardian US, tells me.

Inside the Post, NPR’s David Folkenflik reported, editorial page editor David Shipley relayed the decision to staff in a “tense meeting” just before Lewis announced it publicly. While staffers were reportedly taken aback by the change, Shipley reportedly said that he “owns” the decision and that it was intended to allow the paper to remain “independent,” language that was also used by Lewis in his letter to readers.

Two Post board members, Charles Lane and Stephen W. Stromberg had already drafted a Harris endorsement when the process stalled, prior to Friday’s announcement, according to Columbia Journalism Review executive editor Sewell Chan. He added that the decision, which was approved by Shipley, has “angered” staffers.

Lewis’s tenure has been marked by controversy, with the Post, among the outlets, reporting on clashes over his plans for the paper and his ties to the British phone-hacking scandal. Lewis previously worked for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.