Washington Post declines to endorse presidential candidate

The Washington Post has announced it will not endorse a presidential candidate in the upcoming election.

CEO William Lewis said the decision was a return "to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates", adding that the newspaper will not be endorsing any president in the future either.

The move breaks with decades of tradition, with the paper having endorsed a candidate in most presidential elections since the 1970s - all of whom have been Democrats.

It follows a similar announcement from the Los Angeles Times last week, which said it was not endorsing a presidential candidate this year.

The editorials editor at the Los Angeles Times resigned after the company's decision.

"I am resigning because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent," Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review. "In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up."

According to Ms Garza, the LA Times had planned to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, but the plan was blocked by the paper’s owner, billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong.

Following Ms Garza's resignation, Mr Soon-Shiong pushed back on that assertion, writing in a social media post that he had "provided the opportunity" for the paper's editorial board "to draft a factual analysis of all the POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE policies by EACH candidate during their tenures at the White House, and how these policies affected the nation".

He said the board "chose to remain silent" instead of following his suggestion, which he said he accepted.

In The Washington Post's case, the paper reported that editorial page staffers had drafted an endorsement of Harris but it was yet to be published, citing two sources briefed on the sequence of events who were not authorised to speak publicly.

Citing the same sources, it added that the decision not to publish the endorsement was made by the paper's owner, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

In a column published on The Post’s website on Friday, Mr Lewis said the paper was "returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates".

“We recognise 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. That is inevitable,” Mr Lewis wrote.

“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".

He added that it was also "a statement in support of our readers' ability to make up their own minds" on who to elect president.

Marty Baron, former executive editor of The Post, described the decision as "cowardice, with democracy as its casualty".

"Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage," he added.

In contrast to The Washington Post and the LA Times, The New York Times endorsed Harris in September, describing her as "the only patriotic choice for president".

Republican candidate Donald Trump received an endorsement from The New York Post on Friday - the tabloid owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

"America is ready for today’s heroic Donald Trump to reclaim the presidency," an opinion piece in the paper read.