Update: This piece has been updated to include comments from Washington Post columnist Karen Tumulty, forwarded to Headline USA after publication.
(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) A group of 11 Washington Post columnists issued a strongly-worded opinion piece Friday after their boss, Jeff Bezos, blocked the editorial board from endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris just days before the election.
Despite loud complaints against Bezos, a Headline USA review found that few are willing to quit their high-paying, elitist jobs over what they described as a “terrible mistake.”
In the column, the columnists argued that not endorsing a presidential candidate “represents an abandonment of the fundamental editorial convictions of the newspaper that we love, and for which we have worked a combined 275 years.”
The signees included Perry Bacon Jr., E.J. Dionne Jr., Lee Hockstader, David Ignatius, Heather Long, Ruth Marcus, Dana Milbank, Catherine Rampell, Eugene Robinson, Jennifer Rubin and Karen Tumulty.
Most columnists did not respond to Headline USA’s inquiry about whether they would resign. An email to Robinson bounced back due to a full inbox. Tumulty, however, refused to resign, stating in comments to Headline USA that she loves her job.
Despite their notable silence, the group claimed in their letter that this election marked a moment for the newspaper to show “its commitment to democratic values, the rule of law and international alliances and the threat that Donald Trump poses to them.”
They added, “There is no contradiction between The Post’s important role as an independent newspaper and its practice of making political endorsements, both as a matter of guidance to readers and as a statement of core beliefs.”
Thus far, only The Post columnist Michele Norris and editor-at-large Robert Kagan have resigned over Bezos’s decision to block the Harris endorsement.
The Washington Post’s decision to withhold an endorsement that had been written & approved in an election where core democratic principles are at stake was a terrible mistake & an insult to the paper’s own longstanding standard of regularly endorsing candidates since 1976.
— Michele Norris (@michele_norris) October 27, 2024
The Post’s choice to remain neutral followed the same decision made by the Los Angeles Times, the largest newspaper in Harris’s hometown.
Newspapers aren’t the only entities refusing to back her campaign; the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the International Association of Fire Fighters—both traditionally Democratic-aligned unions—also declined to endorse Harris.
