Watergate reporters Woodward and Bernstein call Washington Post’s decision not to endorse Kamala Harris “disappointing.”

Famous Watergate reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein criticized Jeff Bezos’ decision to keep the Washington Post neutral in the 2024 presidential race by refusing to endorse Kamala Harris for president.

“We respect traditional editorial independence, but this decision, 11 days after the 2024 presidential election, ignores the overwhelming evidence of the Washington Post’s reporting on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy,” the pair said in a statement released by CNN on Friday. . .

“Under the ownership of Jeff Bezos, the Washington Post’s news operation has used its extensive resources to rigorously investigate the danger and damage that a second Trump presidency could cause to the future of American democracy, and that makes this decision even most surprising and disappointing, especially at the end of this year. election process.”

Both are longtime institutions in journalism and worked at the Washington Post, where their famous coverage of Richard Nixon and the Watergate scandal helped end his presidency.

Bezos, who bought the Washington Post in 2013, withdrew a planned endorsement of Harris from its editorial board this week, a move that sparked public outrage in the newsroom.

“I didn’t sign up to be a journalist to keep quiet about what matters most. I didn’t come here to be a coward. Some of us really, really believe in speaking truth to power. We were betrayed today,” Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah wrote on Friday X.

A WashPo editor, Robert Kagan, has already resigned over the decision, while 2,000 readers canceled their subscriptions within 24 hours, which one employee said was “an extremely high number,” Semaphore reported.

However, a source familiar with the numbers dismissed the cancellations, telling the outlet that they are “not statistically significant.”

Bezos’ decision — which will also stand for “any future presidential election,” according to publisher Will Lewis — follows the Los Angeles Times, whose billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong also refused to issue an endorsement, leading to a flood of resignations. from its editorial office.