THE Washington Post will not support any candidate in the US presidential election, its general director announced on Friday, while the daily’s journalists’ union accused owner Jeff Bezos of having blocked support for Kamala Harris.
William Lewis announced that the prestigious newspaper, famous for revealing Watergate, would also refrain from inviting its readership to vote for a candidate in future elections, in an online post which provoked numerous reactions, for most of them indignant, from readers.
“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,” he wrote , while polls have so far failed to decide between Democratic Vice-President Kamala Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump.
The journalists’ union of Washington Post said he was “very concerned” by this decision, “barely 11 days before an election with immense stakes”, and is worried about “interference” in the decisions of the editorial committee.
“According to our journalists and members, support for Harris had already been drafted, and the owner of the “Post”, Jeff Bezos, has made the decision not to publish it,” continues the organization in a press release published in X.
The major American daily, owned by the founder of Amazon since 2013, had supported the Democratic presidential candidates in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020.
In recent years, Jeff Bezos has signed major contracts with the American government, and in particular with the Pentagon, in the field of data storage.
“Cowardice”
Chief executive William Lewis described Friday’s decision as a “back to basics”, arguing that the Washington Post had, for example, refrained from encouraging its readers to vote for one or the other candidate in 1960, before the election won by John F. Kennedy.
He defends the decision not to take sides, “in accordance with the values” of the newspaper.
“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,” concludes the general director.
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 will all die in the dark and Jeff Bezos turned out the light,” wrote another, referring to the newspaper’s famous motto, “Democracy dies in the dark” (“Democracy dies in the dark” (“Democracy dies in the dark”)Democracy dies in Darkness“).
This decision of Washington Post comes after the owner of another major American daily, the Los Angeles Timeshad blocked the decision of the newspaper’s editorial committee, which wanted to support Kamala Harris.
Friday, the New York Postan ultraconservative tabloid owned by tycoon Rupert Murdoch, encouraged people to vote for Donald Trump.
On September 30, the editorial board of the prestigious New York Times for his part, gave his support to the Democratic candidate.
These successive announcements come in a campaign which has seen the big names of the American press lose their influence, both with voters and with the candidates themselves, whose attention is increasingly focused on other media outlets, such as podcasts or TikTok.
