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The Washington Publish, the place “democracy dies in darkness,” is sitting out the 2024 presidential endorsement race. For the primary time for the reason that 1988 election, the paper’s editorial board gained’t be making an endorsement for president. Writer-CEO Will Lewis introduced the transfer to readers on Friday as “returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”

Not surprisingly, there’s apparently (rather a lot) extra to this story, which comes just a few days after the Los Angeles Occasions introduced the same transfer on the behest of its billionaire proprietor Patrick Quickly-Shiong, prompting the publication’s editorials editor and two members of its editorial board to resign.

A billionaire proprietor was behind the Publish’s non-endorsement, too. Right here’s the Publish’s reporting on itself:

An endorsement of Harris had been drafted by Publish editorial web page staffers however had but to be printed, in accordance with two sources briefed on the sequence of occasions who spoke on the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t licensed to talk publicly. The choice to not publish was made by The Publish’s proprietor — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — in accordance with the identical sources.

“That is cowardice, a second of darkness that can depart democracy as a casualty. Donald Trump will have fun this as an invite to additional intimidate The Publish’s proprietor, Jeff Bezos (and different media homeowners),” former Publish govt editor Martin Baron, who led the paper whereas Trump was president, stated in a textual content message to The Publish. “Historical past will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an establishment famed for braveness.”

NPR stories that editorial-page editor David Shipley broke the information internally at a “tense assembly” shortly earlier than Lewis made his announcement:

Shipley had accredited an editorial endorsement for Harris that was being drafted earlier this month, in accordance with three folks with direct data. He informed colleagues the choice was to endorse was being reviewed by the paper’s billionaire proprietor, Jeff Bezos. That’s the proprietor’s prerogative and is a standard observe. On Friday, Shipley stated that he informed different editorial board leaders on Thursday that administration had determined there could be no endorsement, although Shipley had identified in regards to the choice for awhile. He added that he “owns” this end result. The explanation he cited was to create “unbiased house” the place the newspaper doesn’t inform folks for whom to vote.

Right here is Bezos’s final tweet, despatched after Trump was almost assassinated in July:

Lewis’s acknowledged rationale has been met with skepticism by others within the enterprise:

Present staffers on the Publish are additionally expressing alarm and/or outrage over the transfer:

Editor-at-large Robert Kagan has resigned:

The Publish’s union says its “deeply involved,” too:

The Columbia Journalism Evaluate stories that the Publish’s Harris endorsement had been within the works for weeks:

Over a interval of a number of weeks, a Publish staffer informed me, two Publish board members, Charles Lane and Stephen W. Stromberg, had labored on drafts of a Harris endorsement. (Neither was contacted for this text.) “Usually we’d have had a gathering, evaluation a draft, make solutions, do enhancing,” the staffer informed me. Editorial writers began to really feel angsty just a few weeks in the past, per the staffer; the method stalled. Round per week in the past, editorial web page editor David Shipley informed the editorial board that the endorsement was on monitor, including that “that is clearly one thing our proprietor has an curiosity in.”

“We thought we have been dickering over language—not over whether or not there could be an endorsement,” the Publish staffer stated. So the Publish, each information and opinion departments, have been surprised Friday after Shipley informed the editorial board at a gathering that it could not take a place in spite of everything.