Washington Post employees are growing concerned about the left-leaning newspaper’s silence on its endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris for president — with many suspecting owner Jeff Bezos is behind the delay, according to a report.
Some insiders speculate that the billionaire Amazon founder, who has not spoken publicly about the 2024 election, does not want to oust Republican challenger Donald Trump as he gains momentum to retake the White House next month, the Status newspaper reported. on tuesday.
The paper’s editorial board is believed to have written its endorsement of the Democrat but did not get approval to publish it from Bezos and publisher Will Lewis, wrote former CNN media observer Oliver Darcy, who launched Status after leaving the network. in August.
The WaPo staff is confused about the Beltway-wide slate that’s staying mum, given that 20 million voters have already sent in their ballots and Election Day is less than two weeks away, he added.
The paper endorsed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020, publishing its endorsements much earlier in past election cycles. The New York Times endorsed Harris on September 30.
The Post has sought comment from the Washington Post and Bezos.
Bezos, the world’s second-richest person with a net worth estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $208 billion as of Thursday, was a frequent target of Trump during his first term in office — largely because of the Washington Post’s coverage of his administration.
The paper’s silence comes amid drama unfolding in the Los Angeles Times newsroom, where the editorial board was blocked from publishing her endorsement of Harris by the paper’s billionaire owner, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong.
Soon-Shiong’s intervention prompted Mariel Garza, editorial editor of the LA Times, to resign in protest on Wednesday.
In his source X, Soon-Shiong wrote that he wanted the editorial board to “draft a factual analysis of all positive and negative policies by each candidate during their tenure in the White House” as part of a “clear and non-partisan”. side by side” so that “our readers can decide” who to support.
Fortune 500 tycoons have been reticent to weigh in on the election and have preferred to steer clear of political controversy for fear of angering the likely winner.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly complained to several people about the criticism he has received for his philanthropic work and has stopped supporting any efforts that could be construed as partisan.
During the 2020 election, Zuckerberg, the world’s third-richest person whose net worth was estimated by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index at $200 billion as of Thursday, donated about $350 million to support the election administration in the face of challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic. .
But Zuckerberg was criticized by some who claimed that most of the funds tended to favor Democratic-leaning constituencies.
Earlier this week, the New York Times reported that JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is privately supporting Harris, but won’t say so publicly for fear that Trump would retaliate against him if he were to become president again.
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