ALBAWABA - The Washington Post (WP) fell into the middle of a mess as 20,000 subscribers had cancelled their digital subscriptions by midday Monday after American businessman Jeff Bezos refused to endorse current Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 US presidential elections.
NPR's report cited two people at the WP, who are familiar with the issue, it read that dozens of thousands unsubscribed from the American digital newspaper and digital subscribers. Furthermore, the report confirmed that multiple columnists also resigned.
WP owner, billionaire Jeff Bezos caused chaos inside the paper and subscribers after he decided to block an endorsement of Kamala Harris for president in the elections which is expected to start next Tuesday, November 5.
Ex-Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli told NPR: "The problem is, people don’t know why the decision was made. We basically know the decision was made but we don’t know what led to it."
Meanwhile, Will Lewis, Chief Executive and Publisher justified on Friday the decision regarding the paper's stance on the elections this year and in the upcoming years by saying the Washington Post is known to be an "independent paper".
American billionaire released an opinion piece headlined "The hard truth: Americans don’t trust the news media". The piece caused fury among social media users and activists in the US.
He wrote: "Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, “I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.” None."
It is worth noting that back in 2020 when former President Donald Trump competed against then-Democratic candidate Joe Biden, the Washington Post endorsed Biden.
In fact, The Washington Post is not the only paper that rejected to endorse any candidate in the upcoming elections, USA Today and The Los Angeles Times will not endorse a candidate for president in 2024.
