Washington Post's US poll decision sparks row

The Washington Post's decision not to endorse any candidate in the 2024 presidential election has sparked outrage among its current and former staffers. Also led to a spree of subscription cancellations. Within 24 hours of the newspaper's publisher announcing its decision, a first in 36 years, more than 2,000 subscribers cancelled their subscriptions, indicating the extent of readers' fury.

On Saturday morning, "Democracy Dies in Darkness", the newspaper's official slogan, and "WaPo" were trending on X. Among the notables who cancelled their Washington Post subscriptions include author Stephen King and Star Trek actor George Takei.

"After 5 years, I have cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post," Stephen King, a frequent critic of Republican presidential candidate Trump, tweeted. George Takei also called for "staying off" Amazon and attacked Jeff Bezos, the newspaper's billionaire owner, directly. The e-commerce platform Amazon was also founded by Bezos. "If Jeff Bezos cowers before power, we the consumers should show him ours by staying off Amazon through the election," Takei said.

On Friday, Will Lewis, the Washington Post's publisher, announced that the paper's editorial board would not be endorsing a candidate in this year's presidential election. However, what prompted the backlash was a report by the newspaper, citing sources, that the call was taken by Jeff Bezos.

In fact, the sources also said that the newspaper's editorial page employees had drafted an endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris. However, the draft was never presented to the newspaper's board.

Numerous subscribers took to social media, accusing Bezos of prioritising his business agenda. Many commenters saw it as a betrayal of The Post's readers.

Robert Kagan, an opinion editor-at-large at the Post, also resigned in protest after the announcement. Karen Attiah, a columnist for the Washington Post, called the decision an "absolute stab in the back".

The union representing journalists at the Washington Post said it was "deeply concerned" by the decision "especially a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election", The Guardian reported.

While Bezos has not commented on the controversy, critics have speculated that the decision might stem from Trump's past criticisms of Bezos and Amazon, given the company's reliance on government contracts.