As of yesterday, I have decided to resign from my role as a columnist for The Washington Post — a newspaper that I love. In a moment like this, everyone needs to make their own decisions. This is the reasonfor mine. 🧵
— Michele Norris (@michele_norris) October 27, 2024
Re-posting news of the non-endorsement on the social media website X, Washington Post climate reporter Brianna Sacks wrote pointedly that the Post “won a Pulitzer for public service for our coverage of the Jan. 6 insurrection.” Harvard University alumna Alexandra Petri posted screenshots of one of her latest stories, noting that “it has fallen to me, the humor columnist, to endorse Harris for president.”
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the reporting team that uncovered the Watergate scandal for the Post, released a joint statement calling the move “disappointing.” Robert Ellsberg, son of whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers to the Washington Post, invoked the example set by former Washington Post publisher and owner Katharine Graham.
“She was warned that her paper’s survival was on the line. She didn’t blink,” Ellsberg wrote.
Marty Baron, who was the executive editor of the Post until 2021 (and a former Boston Globe editor), has also condemned the decision on social media, and said in an interview with the Globe over the weekend that “what the Post demonstrated was weakness.”
In 1971, after the Justice Dept enjoined The NY Times from publishing the Pentagon Papers, my father gave them to the @washingtonpost. It was ultimately the call of Katherine Graham, publisher/owner. She was warned that her paper’s survival was on the line. She didn’t blink. pic.twitter.com/okIk0svfHx
— @RobertEllsberg (@RobertEllsberg) October 26, 2024
Washington Post abortion reporter Caroline Kitchener, meanwhile, revealed that her mother had canceled her subscription to the Post, a move echoed by myriad others in the Post’s subscriber base — 2.5 million strong, as of last year. In a thread on X, Kitchener wrote that “when you cancel, you are hurting us, not our owner.”
“I completely understand if you’ve lost faith in our owner, but please, don’t lose faith in us,” she wrote. “We have so much work to do.”
My mom just told me she cancelled her subscription to The Washington Post. She reads every one of my stories. It was a heartbreaking call.
I understand why she did it, but I asked her to reconsider. To anyone who has cancelled or is thinking about cancelling, here’s what I said:
— Caroline Kitchener (@CAKitchener) October 26, 2024
But scores of high-profile individuals have made the same call as Kitchener’s mother, posting about pulling the plug on their subscriptions, from horror author Stephen King to politician Liz Cheney to “Star Wars” actor Mark Hamill.
After 5 years, I have canceled my subscription to the Washington Post.
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) October 25, 2024
I cancelled my LA Times and Washington Post subscriptions and reinvested in other publications for the same reason I turned in my Tesla and bought an EV from a competitor — capitalism encourages us to use our money to register our displeasure and create alternatives.
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) October 26, 2024
i just canceled my subscription to the Washington Post, a paper up until today i have had tremendous respect for. Their decision not to endorse in the most crucial election in modern world history is deplorable.
— Matthew Dowd (@matthewjdowd) October 25, 2024
Liz Cheney tells The New Yorker festival that she canceled her Washington Post subscription.
“It’s fear. When you have Jeff Bezos apparently afraid to issue an endorsement for the only candidate in the race who’s a stable responsible adult because he fears Donald Trump, that…
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 27, 2024
Others, including many journalists, have urged readers to cancel their subscriptions to Amazon Prime rather than the Washington Post (Bezos founded Amazon). This, they say, will exert financial pressure on Bezos without potentially impacting Washington Post journalists as collateral damage.
Instead of cancelling your @washingtonpost subscription, cancel Amazon prime—and stop ordering from Amazon, while you’re at it.
— Rachel Louise Snyder (@RLSWrites) October 25, 2024
you could protest Jeff Bezos by cancelling Amazon Prime, not your newspaper subscription
— Rachel Cohen (@rmc031) October 26, 2024
Others have made this point but if you’re trying to punish Jeff Bezos by cancelling your subscription to the Washington Post instead of Amazon Prime, you’re telling on yourself.
— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) October 26, 2024
The Post was the second major newspaper to announce this month it would not be endorsing a presidential candidate, after the Los Angeles Times, owned by billionaire Patrick Soon-Shiong, which led to its own cascade of resignations and blowback.
Dana Gerber can be reached at dana.gerber@globe.com. Follow her @danagerber6.