Two Washington Publish editorial board members have stepped down in protest of the newspaper’s resolution to not endorse a candidate within the 2024 election.
The journalists be part of Washington Publish editor-at-large Robert Kagan, who resigned on Friday. A number of different journalists additionally resigned or vowed to not work with the paper once more sooner or later.
The newspaper announced its decision to not endorse on Friday, prompting a wave of liberals to cancel their subscriptions.
“The Washington Publish won’t be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate on this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We’re returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” the announcement learn.
The announcement added, “Our job at The Washington Publish is to supply by way of the newsroom nonpartisan information for all People, and thought-provoking, reported views from our opinion crew to assist our readers make up their very own minds.” It concluded by saying, “Most of all, our job because the newspaper of the capital metropolis of a very powerful nation on the earth is to be unbiased. And that’s what we’re and might be.”
The concept of neutrality didn’t sit nicely with the left, together with the paper’s leftist workers.
Editorial board member Molly Roberts shared her resignation in a social media publish on Monday.
— Molly Roberts (@mollylroberts) October 28, 2024
Roberts wrote:
Let’s say that an editorial board had a many years lengthy observe of not endorsing candidates for president: This could be the election to reverse that place and take a stand. That the Washington Publish editorial board has been compelled to do the alternative dishonors our values and robs us of our goal.
To be very clear, the choice to not endorse this election was not the editorial board’s. It was (you possibly can learn the reporting) Jeff Bezos’s. By registering my dissent, I don’t intend to impugn the conduct of any of my colleagues, all of whom have been put in almost not possible positions.
The mission of an editorial board is less complicated than it might appear: We wish to make the nation and the world a greater place, by supporting the higher candidate or the perfect coverage, and by condemning the worst. We wish to change minds. However above all else, we wish to write with ethical readability. If we are able to’t do this, what are we doing in any respect?
I’m resigning from The Publish editorial board as a result of the crucial to endorse Kamala Harris over Donald Trump is about as morally clear because it will get. Worse, our silence is strictly what Donald Trump needs: for the media, for us, to maintain quiet.
At a rally the day earlier than The Publish introduced it wouldn’t endorse, he went on a minutes-long rant trashing the supposedly unfair, unfree press. He ended, “They’re the enemy of the individuals, and sometime they’re not going to be the enemy of the individuals, I hope.”
It’s that very hope we’re fulfilling after we shut up quite than talking out. And it’s a candidate’s expression of that hope that turns an in any other case mundane newspaper endorsement into a vital sign. Donald Trump just isn’t but a dictator. However the quieter we’re, the nearer he comes — as a result of dictators don’t must order the press to publish cooperatively if it needs to go on publishing in any respect. The press is aware of, and it censors itself.
Our endorsement was our strongest technique of sending the message that we’re watching, and that we care sufficient say one thing. As an alternative now we have despatched the message that we don’t care in any case. To dissent, on this case, is to depart.
Pulitzer Prize-winner David Hoffman additionally resigned from the editorial board however will proceed to work on the Publish.
NEWS: Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Publish editorial board member David Hoffman will *stay* at The Publish — although he’s stepping down from the editorial board.
From his letter to David Shipley: “Whereas leaving the board, I refuse to surrender on The Publish, the place I’ve spent 42…
— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) October 28, 2024
In a letter explaining his resolution to step down, Hoffman wrote, “Whereas leaving the board, I refuse to surrender on The Publish, the place I’ve spent 42 years.”
