More Washington Post staffers resign over paper’s failure to endorse Kamala Harris

At slightest 2 much staffers person penned their past communicative for The Washington Post arsenic labor resign successful protestation complete nan broadsheet’s determination not to endorse Kamala Harris for nan 2024 statesmanlike election.

Editorial committee members David Hoffman and Molly Roberts person issued their resignations, Semafor media journalist Max Tani reported connected Monday. The 2 longtime Washington Post staffers each authored resignation letters slamming nan paper’s determination not to endorse Harris.

“I judge we look a very existent threat of autocracy successful nan candidacy of Donald Trump,” Hoffman, who took location nan Pulitzer Prize past week and first joined nan insubstantial successful 1982, wrote successful his resignation letter, which was posted connected X. “I find it untenable and unconscionable that we person mislaid our sound astatine this perilous moment.”

Roberts, different longtime worker of The Post who first joined nan insubstantial arsenic a student intern while studying astatine Harvard University, said she was resigning owed to nan paper’s refusal to endorse Harris.

“I’m resigning from The Post editorial committee because nan imperative to endorse Kamala Harris complete Donald Trump is astir arsenic morally clear arsenic it gets,” Roberts wrote successful her resignation letter. “Worse, our soundlessness is precisely what Donald Trump wants: for nan media, for us, to support quiet.”

Their notices subordinate 1 different known resignation among nan editorial staff.

The Washington Post connected Friday announced it would not endorse either statesmanlike candidate, breaking 36 years of contented – and eliciting outrage from staffers, subscribers and reporters astatine different outlets.

The newspaper past published an article written by 2 reporters saying that editorial page staffers had already drafted an endorsement for Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The determination not to people was made by The Post’s proprietor – Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos,” The Washington Post reported, citing 2 sources briefed connected nan events.

Bezos hired nan paper’s CEO and publisher, ex-Wall Street Journal leader Will Lewis, successful January contempt soul protests complete his alleged engagement successful nan UK telephone hacking scandal.

Lewis has said he was nan 1 who killed nan Harris endorsement, not Bezos. In a column, he wrote that nan newspaper was not breaking from tradition, but alternatively returning to nan paper’s believe from years agone of not endorsing candidates.

He said it was “consistent pinch nan values nan Post has ever stood for” and it reflected nan paper’s religion successful “our readers’ expertise to dress up their ain minds.”

“We admit that this will beryllium publication successful a scope of ways, including arsenic a tacit endorsement of 1 candidate, aliases arsenic a condemnation of another, aliases arsenic an abdication of responsibility. That is inevitable,” Lewis wrote.

“We don’t spot it that way. We spot it arsenic accordant pinch nan values nan Post has ever stood for and what we dream for successful a leader: characteristic and courageousness successful work to nan American ethic, veneration for nan norm of law, and respect for quality state successful each its aspects.”

Robert Kagan, a personnel of nan opinions section, resigned successful protest. He said that Lewis’ mentation was “laughable” and that nan determination not to endorse stemmed from an alleged woody betwixt Bezos and erstwhile President Donald Trump.

Kagan told The Daily Beast that Trump’s gathering pinch executives from Blue Origin, Bezos’ abstraction company, nan aforesaid time nan endorsement was killed was impervious of their scheme.

After nan paper’s non-endorsement, immoderate Washington Post readers canceled their subscriptions and encouraged others to do nan aforesaid connected societal media.

The turmoil successful The Post’s newsroom echoes chaos astatine nan Los Angeles Times, wherever at slightest 3 editorial staffers resigned successful protestation of proprietor Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong’s determination to artifact an endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Soon-Shiong’s girl said that nan refusal to endorse Harris stemmed from dissatisfaction complete nan Biden administration’s Israel policies, though nan billionaire denied that this was nan case.

Some person decried nan non-endorsement arsenic Bezos’ effort to cozy up to erstwhile president Donald Trump aft their rocky history.

During his clip arsenic president, Trump often criticized Bezos for The Washington Post’s left-leaning coverage.

In 2019, Amazon accused Trump of governmental retribution aft his management denied nan institution a $10 cardinal Pentagon contract to supply unreality computing services.