Jeff Bezos op-ed defends the Washington Post over endorsement change

Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has defended his newspaper’s decision to stop making presidential endorsements, saying the move could help improve credibility.

Mr Bezos, who is also the Amazon founder, argued in an article on the Post’s website on Monday that presidential endorsements created the “perception of bias” and did not “tip the scales” of an election.

The comments follow public scrutiny, as well as the newspaper’s reported loss of thousands of subscribers and the resignation of some editorial staff members.

The decision to stop endorsing a presidential candidate – which was announced just days before the election – broke with a custom the Post had generally followed for decades.

“No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement’. None,” Mr Bezos wrote in his defence of the move.

“What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one.”

The paper has endorsed a candidate in most presidential elections since the 1970s, though when it announced the move, CEO William Lewis described the decision as a return “to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates”.

The Washington Post Guild’s leadership – which represents workers at the paper – said it was “deeply concerned” by the decision.

“We are already seeing cancellations from once-loyal readers,” the Guild said in its statement. “This decision undercuts the work of our of members at a time when we should be building our readers’ trust, not losing it.”

The paper has lost as many as 200,000 digital subscribers, and several editorial staff including board members have stepped down, according to a report by NPR. The Post itself declined to comment, and Mr Bezos has not addressed the report.

In its own news article on the decision, The Washington Post reported – citing two sources briefed on the sequence of events who were not authorised to speak publicly – that editorial staffers had planned to endorse Vice-President Kamala Harris, but the article was never published.

Mr Bezos denied the timing of the decision was a “intentional strategy” and chalked it up to “inadequate planning”.

“I wish we had made the change earlier than we did, in a moment further from the election and the emotions around it,” Mr Bezos wrote.

But he said the paper would need to “exercise new muscles” to stay competitive and current.

The Washington Post owner also denied the decision was a “quid pro quo of any kind” with Harris or her Republican rival for the presidency, Donald Trump.

In addition to The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and USA Today have also announced they will not endorse a presidential candidate this time.

Meanwhile, the New York Times and New York Post have made endorsements for Harris and Trump respectively.