'Washington Post' decides not to endorse a presidential candidate

NPR's Steve Inskeep talks to former "Washington Post" Executive Editor Marty Baron about the paper's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate.

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Some Washington Post readers spent part of the weekend canceling their subscriptions. They were objecting to the Post's announcement that it will endorse no candidate in the presidential election. Publisher Will Lewis said the paper's editorial board would return to its practice of half a century ago, back when it did not endorse candidates for president. The sudden decision to cancel a planned endorsement of Kamala Harris came days before a presidential election and applies only to presidential elections, apparently, since the Post is making other endorsements.

Did the post owner Jeff Bezos make this call? Well, the publisher issued a carefully worded denial that seemed to imply that Bezos did not. But The Washington Post's reporters, who operate separately, are reporting based on four sources that, in fact, Bezos did make the call. Marty Baron joins us now. He's a former editor of the Post who worked for Bezos. Good morning, sir.

MARTY BARON: Good morning.

INSKEEP: There's a case to be made that newspapers should not make endorsements anyway, so what's wrong with this decision?

BARON: Well, if this decision had been made three years ago, two years ago, maybe even a year ago, that would've been fine. It's a certainly reasonable decision. But this was made within a couple of weeks of the election, and there was no substantive serious deliberation with the editorial board of the paper. It was clearly made for other reasons, not for reasons of high principle.

INSKEEP: The publisher is allowed to weigh in on endorsement, and they often do at many newspapers that make endorsements. Is there any doubt in your mind that Bezos' fingerprints are on this?

BARON: There's no doubt in my mind. I mean, the Post itself has reported that. The statement that you alluded to from the publisher doesn't say that he wasn't involved. It's a very narrowly written statement. It says that he didn't read a draft and didn't opine on a draft. That does not mean that he was not involved in the decision.

INSKEEP: You, in your memoir of your time at The Washington Post, wrote very positively of Jeff Bezos' support in difficult times. What do you make of his actions so far as we know here?

BARON: Well, it's a change. Look, I mean, during my time there, ever since Bezos acquired the post in October of 2013, he really stood behind us. And I was enormously grateful for that because he endured tremendous pressure from Donald Trump during his first campaign, and then during his presidency. And Trump tried to interfere in Amazon's business, tried to raise postal rates, interfered in a gigantic cloud computing contract to make sure it didn't go to Amazon. And yet Bezos stood by us and defended us, and I was incredibly grateful for that. But I see this as a betrayal of the core principles of the Post, and the principles that he himself professed and practiced when I was the editor of the Post.

INSKEEP: I should note another detail here. It appears that after this decision was made that representatives of Blue Origin, Bezos' space company, had some kind of meeting with Trump. Would Trump potentially, if he wins office again, have a lot of influence over Bezos' various business ventures?

BARON: Oh, no question about that. I mean, listen, Amazon is dependent on the federal government, does a lot of business with the federal government for cloud computing contracts with various agencies. It also is dependent on the postal rates that are charged for the package deliveries. And his own private company, Blue Origin, which you just mentioned, depends on government contracts for its space ventures.

INSKEEP: OK, so I don't know how widespread it really is, but plenty of people are on social media saying, I canceled my subscription. I'm blocking all Washington Post content. I'm dropping Amazon. Would you have people cancel their subscriptions?

BARON: No, I would not. And I'm opposed to that. Look, I mean, the Post continues to do extraordinary work in its news department. There are also great columnists there as well. But in the news department, they continue to do investigative work. And that investigative work is an important contribution to our democracy. And I fully support that, and I hope the public will continue to support that.

INSKEEP: I noticed there was a revelation about Elon Musk in the pages of The Washington Post on the same day as the announcement about the endorsement.

BARON: Indeed.

INSKEEP: Or the no endorsement.

BARON: Indeed.

INSKEEP: Marty Baron was the editor of The Washington Post. Thanks so much for taking the time.

BARON: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.