Journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, best known for their reporting on the Watergate scandal, have slammed the Washington Post for its refusal to endorse a 2024 presidential candidate.
The legendary journalists issued a statement on Friday, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter.
“We respect the traditional independence of the editorial page, but this decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Post’s own overwhelming reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy,” the men wrote. “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 and that makes this decision even more surprising and disappointing, especially this late in the electoral process.”
Woodward and Bernstein were working for the Washington Post when they reported on Watergate.
They’re the latest to voice their displeasure with the Post for refusing to pick between Harris and Trump.
“This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” former Washington Post editor-in-chief Marty Baron wrote on social media. “[Donald Trump] will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner [Bezos] (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”
According to the Post reporters, Bezos, the owner of the paper and founder of Amazon, reportedly made the decision not to endorse, even though editorial board members at the paper had already drafted their decision.
Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis wrote in a column on Friday that the lack of an endorsement was not an act of simpering fear by a billionaire and his lackeys, but was rather just the Post going back to it’s original policy of not endorsing presidential candidates.
He reminded readers that the paper only began endorsing candidates in 1976.
“We recognize 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,” Lewis wrote. “That is inevitable. We don’t see it that way. We see it as consistent with the values The Post has always stood for and what we hope for in a leader: character and courage in service to the American ethic, veneration for the rule of law, and respect for human freedom in all its aspects.”
Bezos said he hired Lewis because of his “conservative bona fides” and that he liked that Lewis could play nice with “powerful conservative figures,” NPR reported.
Robert Kagan, an editors-at-large at the Post and a constant critic of Trump, resigned on Friday after the paper refused to endorse. According to NPR, the general tenor of the newsroom following the announcement was negative.
A group of opinion writers at the Post explained in a column why they believe not endorsing was going to be a “terrible mistake.”
“It represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love, and for which we have worked a combined 218 years,” the column said. “This is a moment for the institution to be making clear its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances, and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them — the precise points The Post made in endorsing Trump’s opponents in 2016 and 2020.”
Patrick Soong-Shiong, the owner of the LA Times, also blocked his paper from making an endorsement in the presidential race.
Subscribers showed Shiong and Bezos what they thought about the decision by unsubscribing. Semafor reported that at least 2,000 subscribers have ended their Post subscriptions since the announcement and another 1,300 LA Times subscribers have canceled.