The diary The Washington Post has decided not to endorse any candidate in the United States presidential elections for the first time in decades, its editor in chief, William Lewis, announced this Friday.
The newspaper thus avoids positioning itself between the vice president and Democratic candidate, Kamala Harris, and the former president and Republican candidate, Donald Trump, ahead of the November 5 elections.
“The Washington Post will not endorse any candidate in these elections or in any presidential election in the future. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing any presidential candidate,” Lewis said in an article published in the newspaper.
The Post followed a tradition of not endorsing any White House candidate until it changed its position in 1976 and then supported Democrat Jimmy Carterafter the Watergate scandal that the newspaper itself had uncovered. The last time he did not endorse anyone was in 1988.
The Post has investigated irregularities and controversies by Trump and those around him
The newspaper has investigated irregularities and controversies by Trump and those around him for years, and has been highly critical of the Republican’s rhetoric and his refusal to accept the 2020 electoral defeat against Joe Biden.
The equidistant decision of William Lewis, in office since last Januaryhas upset many of the newspaper’s workers, public radio NPR has reported. Martin Baron, former editor of the Post during Trump’s term (2017-2021), has told NPR that this decision is an act of “cowardice” which will make it easier for Trump to “further intimidate” the newspaper’s owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos.
A similar controversy has hit the newspaper this week Los Angeles Timeswhere the head of the Editorial Board, Mariel Garza, has resigned from her position in protest because the newspaper’s owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked the newspaper’s support for Harris.
The Democratic candidate has received the editorial support of a large majority of media outletslike The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, Vogue and the magazine Rolling Stonewhile the conservative tabloid New York Postowned by tycoon Rupert Murdoch, has announced its support for Trump despite having criticized him in 2021 for the assault on the Capitol.
