the “Washington Post” criticized for its neutrality – Libération

US presidential election 2024

2024 US elections file Director General William Lewis announced on Friday October 25 that the major American daily will not support Kamala Harris. A turnaround after defending Democratic candidates in every election since 2008.

Turmoil in American editorial offices. THE Washington Post will not support any candidate in the presidential election of November 5, announced Friday evening October 25 its director general, who defends “independence” of everyday life. Journalists’ union accuses owner Jeff Bezos of blocking support for Kamala Harris, while many readers deplore decision “coward”.

It is in an online post on the “WaPo” site that the general director, William Lewis, announced that the prestigious newspaper, famous for having revealed Watergate, would refrain from calling for a vote for a candidate for the November 5 election as for the next elections.

William Lewis described this decision as a “back to basics”arguing that the Washington Post had, for example, refrained from calling for a vote for either candidate in 1960, before the election won by John F. Kennedy. “Our job, as a daily newspaper in the capital of the most important country in the world, is to be independent. This is what we are and what we always will be”he concludes.

“We are aware that this decision will give rise to numerous interpretations, that it will be seen as implicit support for one of the candidates, or the rejection of another, or as an avoidance of our responsibilities”writes the director general, while the polls have so far failed to decide between Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump.

“Support for Harris had already been drafted”

The journalists’ union of Washington Post said to himself “very concerned” by this decision, “barely eleven days before an election with immense stakes”and worries about a “interference” in the decisions of the editorial committee. “According to our journalists and members, support for Harris had already been written, and the owner of the Post, Jeff Bezos, made the decision not to publish it,” continues the organization in a press release published on. A source close to the newspaper’s management, however, assured that the decision had been taken by the daily itself and that it was «faux» to attribute it to its owner.

The major American daily, owned by the founder of Amazon since 2013, had supported the Democratic presidential candidates in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020. Jeff Bezos has signed major contracts with the American government in recent years, and in particular with the Pentagon, in the field of data storage (“cloud”).

His post sparked an avalanche of furious comments from Internet users, most of whom promised to cancel their subscriptions. “I’m not going to give money to a media outlet that thrives on cowardice,” said one. “We are all going to die in the dark and Jeff Bezos turned out the light,” writes another, in reference to the famous motto of the newspaper, “Democracy dies in darkness”.

This decision of Washington Post comes after the owner of another major American daily, the Los Angeles Timesblocked the decision of the newspaper’s editorial board, which wanted to support Kamala Harris. Friday, the New York Postan ultra-conservative tabloid owned by tycoon Rupert Murdoch, called for people to vote for Donald Trump.

On September 30, the editorial board of the prestigious New York Times had for its part given its support to the Democratic candidate. THE Boston Globe and the Philadelphia Inquirerbased in the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania, did the same.

These successive announcements come in a campaign which has seen the big names of the American press lose their influence, among voters and among the candidates themselves, whose attention is increasingly focused on other media such as podcasts or TikTok.