A rising variety of present and former journalists at The Washington Publish are criticizing the legacy newspaper after proprietor Jeff Bezos determined to withhold a deliberate editorial endorsement for president for the primary time in 36 years.

“The Washington Publish’s choice to not make an endorsement within the presidential marketing campaign is a horrible mistake,” stated a joint column that had been signed by 17 Publish columnists as of Saturday afternoon.

The opinion piece, printed on the paper’s web site, argued that presidential endorsements function a reminder to readers of what the Publish stands for. It declared that the paper can’t retreat from the its duty to face up for core democratic values threatened by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Its editorials have repeatedly warned that Trump is unfit for workplace.

“An unbiased newspaper may sometime select to again away from making presidential endorsements. However this isn’t the appropriate second, when one candidate is advocating positions that immediately threaten freedom of the press and the values of the Structure,” the column added. It was signed by a number of the Publish‘s most outstanding writers, together with Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson, David Ignatius and Jennifer Rubin.

NPR first broke information of Bezos’ choice. The column arrived simply hours after writer William Lewis made the announcement Friday afternoon. In his personal opinion piece, Lewis defined that the Publish didn’t routinely make endorsements till 1976. He stated it was time to return to that custom and assist “readers’ potential to make up their very own minds.”

The Publish had drafted an editorial endorsement for Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris earlier this month. But it surely was finally scrapped by the paper’s billionaire proprietor Bezos, additionally the Amazon founder, the Publish reported. The Publish’s revelation got here simply days after it was reported that the Los Angeles Occasions proprietor Patrick Quickly-Shiong blocked the paper’s Editorial Board from endorsing Harris.

Two different columns printed on Friday expressed frustration with the Publish’s choice. “I’ve by no means been extra upset within the newspaper than I’m in the present day,” wrote editor and columnist Ruth Marcus. “This isn’t the time to make such a shift. It’s the time to talk out, as loudly and convincingly as potential, to make the case that we made in 2016 and once more in 2020: that Trump is dangerously unfit to carry the very best workplace within the land.”

Editor and columnist Karen Tumulty wrote, “Editorial boards exist to make judgments and to talk for the establishment. If this alteration in coverage relating to presidential endorsements was a stand on some long-ignored precept of our previous, why did the newspaper wait till simply 11 days earlier than the election to announce it?”

In a chilling cartoon, Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Ann Telnaes depicted broad strokes of black paint with the title “Democracy Dies in Darkness.”

“I used to be in the midst of finishing the ultimate of one other cartoon and texted my editor that I needed to vary my concept,” she wrote on Substack. “Grabbing a bit of bristol and a big brush, I painted what I felt.”

The Washington Publish Guild management additionally stated they have been deeply troubled by the choice and the way administration interfered with the work of the Editorial Board. “We’re already seeing cancellations from as soon as loyal readers. This choice undercuts the work of our members at a time after we must be constructing our readers’ belief, not dropping it,” they wrote in an announcement.

Readers on social media stated they’d canceled their subscriptions to the Publish they usually got here at a quick clip after information of the choice broke. Greater than 1,600 individuals canceled digital subscriptions within the first three hours, in line with inner exchanges reviewed by NPR.

Publish editor-at-large Robert Kagan additionally introduced his resignation on Friday following the non-endorsement. In an interview with CNN, Kagan stated the transfer indicated Bezos’ regarding relationship with Trump. “That is clearly an effort by Bezos to attempt to get on Trump’s good facet prematurely of his presidency,” he stated.

Bezos holds important enterprise pursuits earlier than the federal authorities that contain billions of {dollars} annually, from Amazon’s transport enterprise and cloud computing providers to his Blue Origin area firm.

When Trump was in workplace, he threatened to personally overview Amazon’s submission to the Pentagon for a cloud computing contract price $10 billion — out of frustration of the Publish’s protection of him. The Protection Division as a substitute awarded the contract to Microsoft, shocking exterior trade analysts. It was later divvied up amongst 4 firms, together with Amazon, after it filed a lawsuit.

On Friday, simply hours after the Publish’s announcement to not endorse, The Related Press reported that Trump met with executives of Bezos’s Blue Origin, which has a multibillion-dollar contract with NASA.

Publish reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who cracked the Watergate scandal, wrote in a joint assertion: “We respect the standard independence of the editorial web page, however this choice 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Publish’s personal overwhelming reportorial proof on the menace Donald Trump poses to democracy,” CNN’s Brian Stelter reported.

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor David Maraniss — who has been on the paper since 1977 and describes himself as a “Washington Publish lifer” — wrote on X: “The choice on this of all years to not endorse when democracy is on the road is contemptible.”

He later added, “The paper I’ve liked working at for 47 years is dying in darkness.”

NPR’s David Folkenflik contributed reporting.