‘Cowardice’: Jeff Bezos blocks Washington Post from endorsing Kamala Harris, sparking backlash from journalists

Billionaire Jeff Bezos is at the centre of political storm after blocking his newspaper, The Washington Post, from making a presidential endorsement.

The influential Washington Post newspaper, owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has controversially announced that it will endorse neither Democrat Kamala Harris nor Republican Donald Trump in the US presidential election.

The paper’s CEO William Lewis said the decision not to make an endorsement was a return “to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates”. But staff are concerned that it’s a sign Mr Bezos wants to avoid antagonising Mr Trump, raising questions about how they would cover a second Trump administration, should he win in November.

The Post editorial board had endorsed candidates for much of the last four decades — all of them Democrats, at the presidential level — before deciding to stay on the sidelines in one of the most polarising elections in US history.

The Washington Post newspaper has refused to back a candidate. Picture: Eric Baradat / AFP

Mr Trump’s campaign quickly pounced, crowing that “Harris is so bad, The Washington Post decided to never endorse another presidential candidate again”.

The Washington Post Guild, which represents unionised staff at the newspaper, said it was “deeply concerned”.

“We are already seeing cancellations from once-loyal readers,” a statement said.

US media reported that a senior Post figure, editor-at-large Robert Kagan, had resigned in protest. Other senior figures from the paper’s present and past have publicly expressed their disapproval as well.

Bezos ‘blocked Harris editorial’

The Post’s decision follows a similar move by another of the big remaining US newspapers, The Los Angeles Times.

The billionaire owner of the Times, Patrick Soon-Shiong, blocked the editorial board from issuing an endorsement of Ms Harris, according to editorial editor Mariel Garza, who resigned in protest, along with fellow editorial board members Karin Klein and Robert Greene.

“I respect the owner’s right to interfere with editorials; that is one place where he ethically can do so,” Ms Klein explained on social media.

“What steams me is that a decision against an editorial at this point is actually a decision to do an editorial, a wordless one, a make-believe-invisible one that unfairly implies that (Harris) has grievous faults that somehow put her on a level with Donald Trump.”

Dr Soon-Shiong said his decision was intended to make the Times “less divisive”.

According to multiple reports, including reporting from The Washington Post itself, Mr Bezos likewise intervened to block the board from publishing its editorial in favour of Ms Harris.

A draft of the endorsement was reportedly written, and ready to be published, when Mr Bezos made the decision to kill it.

The Amazon boss has a range of business interests, some of them involving government contracts, that could be affected if Mr Trump returns to office – particularly if the former president is in the mood for retribution.

The Republican has repeatedly criticised Mr Bezos in the past, and is currently allied with Tesla and SpaceX billionaire Elon Musk, who is in some respects a direct rival to Mr Bezos. Critics of the Post’s decision have accused the paper’s owner of kowtowing to Mr Trump, fearing the potential blowback that could come from a Harris endorsement.

Jeff Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez. Picture: Drew Angerer/AFP

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP

By contrast, The New York Times endorsed Ms Harris in September, calling her “the only patriotic choice for president” and warning “it is hard to imagine a candidate more unworthy to serve as president of the United States” than Mr Trump.

On Friday, US time, Ms Harris also scored the backing of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the biggest newspaper in the key swing state Pennsylvania, which declared that “voters face an easy but tectonic choice”.

On of the Inquirer’s editorial writers, Daniel Pearson, took a shot at both the Post and LA Times while sharing the endorsement on social media.

“Unlike some newspaper editorial boards, we aren’t afraid to take a stand, and we don’t have to get permission from rich schmucks before we write,” he said.

Mr Trump got his own boost this week from The New York Post, which declared “America is ready for today’s heroic Donald Trump to reclaim the presidency”.

‘Cowardice’: Bezos, Washington Post slammed

In his statement, The Washington Post’s CEO, Mr Lewis, wrote that the paper would not make presidential endorsements again going forward.

“Our job at The Washington Post is to provide through the newsroom nonpartisan news for all Americans, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion team to help our readers make up their own minds,” he said.

“We recognise 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. We don’t see it that way.”

Former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Picture: Drew Angerer / AFP

The Post has been endorsing Democratic presidential candidates consistently as far back as the 1980s, while always making it clear that the editorial board does its work separately from the straight news operation — as is typical in US news organisations.

Marty Baron, who was the paper’s executive editor from 2012-2021, was among the most prominent voices speaking out against its refusal to issue an endorsement.

“This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” Mr Baron said.

“Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner Jeff Bezos, and others. Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the duo of investigative journalists who, while working for the Post, broke the Watergate scandal in the 1970s, were also scathing.

“We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page,” the pair said.

“But this decision, 11 days out from the presidential election, ignores The Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.

“Under Jeff Bezos’s ownership, The Washington Post’s news operation has used its abundant resources to rigorously investigate the danger and damage a second Trump presidency could cause to the future of American democracy.

“That makes this decision even more surprising and disappointing, especially this late in the electoral process.”