In recent weeks, two of the biggest outlets in the U.S. have announced they will not endorse a candidate ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Neither The Washington Post nor the L.A. Times will back Donald Trump or Kamala Harris ahead of next week’s election, marking a major departure from tradition.
It comes amid claims the billionaire owners of both outlets intervened in the endorsement process.
Media endorsements of Presidents
Ahead of an election, many media outlets will publish endorsements for a presidential candidate or a party.
This is normally published by an editorial board, which is a separate arm of a news business to the journalists who report on the news of the day.
At the last federal election in Australia, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age, the Guardian, and the Canberra Times all endorsed Labor. News Corp papers and the Australian Financial Review endorsed the Coalition.
U.S. election
Over the past few months, news outlets across the U.S. have announced endorsements for both candidates.
Last month, The New York Times’ editorial board published an endorsement for Kamala Harris, labelled “The Only Patriotic Choice for President”.
More recently, the New York Post (owned by News Corp) threw its support behind Donald Trump, saying he is “the clear choice for a better future”.
L.A. Times
Last week, it was reported the L.A. Times will not endorse a candidate for the presidential election.
The publication has endorsed a candidate in every presidential election since 2008.
It has since been reported that the editorial board was preparing to endorse Kamala Harris, but the paper’s owner intervened to block the endorsement.
The L.A. Times is owned by biotech billionaire Dr Patrick Soon Shiong.
The L.A. Times’ Editorials Editor and several board members have resigned in the wake of the decision.
Editorials Editor Mariel Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review she was resigning “because I want to make it clear that I am not okay with us being silent… In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up. This is how I’m standing up.”
Soon-Shiong has denied interfering in the process, posting on X that the editorial board “decided to remain silent” by not drafting “a factual analysis of all the positive and negative policies” of both candidates.
Washington Post
The Washington Post has also announced it will not endorse a candidate in this presidential election, or any election moving forward. It has endorsed candidates since 1976.
The Post was bought by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013 for $US500 million ($AU760 million).
In a column, the paper’s publisher and CEO Will Lewis described the decision as “a statement in support of our readers’ ability to make up their own minds on this, the most consequential of American decisions”.
Lewis conceded the decision not to make an endorsement “will be read in a range of ways, including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate, or a condemnation of another, or as an abdication of responsibility”.
Following the announcement, the Post’s Editor at Large, Robert Kagan, resigned.
Several past and present editorial staff published opinion pieces criticising the Post’s decision.
In an interview with CNN, Kagan claimed Bezos had intervened to stop the Post from endorsing a candidate, which was also meant to be Kamala Harris.
He said: “This is obviously an effort by Jeff Bezos to curry favour with Donald Trump and the anticipation of his possible victory.”
A spokesperson for the newspaper denied the decision to end presidential endorsements came from Bezos, calling it a “Washington Post decision”.