Three weeks ago, the Teamsters Union became the second major union to announce that they would not endorse a presidential candidate after internal polling revealed 58% of its members back Trump vs. 31% for Harris.

That was understandable – their own members overwhelmingly rejected Harris.

This is different.

On Friday, the Washington Post announced that it would not endorse a candidate for president either, for the first time in 36 years.

“The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” the outlet said in a statement.

new: Washington Post publisher Will Lewis explains why The Post won’t be endorsing for president: pic.twitter.com/Zn0o655UIz

— Ben Mullin (@BenMullin) October 25, 2024

Colleagues are said to be ‘shocked’ at the decision, according to NPR.

The editorial page editor, David Shipley, told colleagues that the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, would publish a note to readers online early Friday afternoon.

Shipley told colleagues the editorial board was told yesterday by management that there would not be an endorsement. He added that he “owns” this decision. The reason he cited was to create “independent space” where the newspaper does not tell people for whom to vote.

Colleagues were said to be “shocked” and uniformly negative. Post corporate spokespeople have not responded to multiple messages left by NPR on the subject.

As NPR‘s David Folkenflik notes on X, “It is not clear whether Post owner Jeff Bezos or Publisher/CEO Will Lewis made the call.“

The decision was revealed in a tense meeting with people on the editorial staff

And it arrives at a time of heightened concern over whether news outles are pulling their punches in order to appease Trump in final days of a neck and neck presidential race agst VP Harris MORE

— David Folkenflik (@davidfolkenflik) October 25, 2024

WaPo resignation exodus in 5, 4, 3…

… and ironically they will all have to pitch their Elon-hating substacks on X

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 25, 2024

The move comes after the Los Angeles Times similarly declined to endorse Harris – leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor, Marzel Garza.

Another liberal newspaper refuses to endorse Kamala over the man she compares to Hitler. She’s toast… https://t.co/Y53XQVWix0

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) October 25, 2024

Washington Post chose Hitler over Taylor Lorenz

— Billionaire Chimp (@ChimpWithMoney) October 25, 2024

Wow…

Developing…