US Polls
Washington Post loses over 2 lakh subscribers after Bezos blocked Kamala Harris' endorsement in US Prez polls
Washington D.C./IBNS: The Washington Post has lost over 2,00,000 subscribers after it refused to endorse Democratic Party nominee Kamala Harris in the United States' Presidential elections, media reports said.
As per National Public Radio, more than 2 lakh people cancelled their subscriptions by Monday midday.
The figure forms approximately 8 percent of the total paid circulation of the paper.
According to a report by The Guardian, the publication has lost 2,50,000 subscribers which form about 10 percent of the total subscriptions.
Apart from the unsubscriptions, several columnists have resigned from the Washington Post in response to the decision to not endorse Harris, who was pitted against Republican nominee Donald Trump after Joe Biden stepped down from the Presidential race.
Amid the wave of cancellations of subscriptions and sea of resignations, former Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli told NPR, "It’s a colossal number," and added, "The problem is, people don’t know why the decision was made. We basically know the decision was made but we don’t know what led to it."
Speaking to NPR, former Post executive editor Marty Baron questioned the timing of the decision, reminding the elections are just round the corner.
"If this decision had been made three years ago, two years ago, maybe even a year ago, that would've been fine," Baron said and added, "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."
For the first time in 36 years, the Washington Post has decided not to endorse any candidate in the Presidential election.
"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," Post publisher and CEO William Lewis wrote in an opinion piece.
However, American business magnet and the Post owner, Jeff Bezos, later acknowledged that the timing was not suitable.
"That was inadequate planning, and not some intentional strategy," Bezos said as quoted by NPR.
As per the survey, the US Presidential elections 2024 is headed for a tight race between Harris and Trump, a former President.
As per a survey by CNN, Harris has the support of 48 percent of voters in Arizona while Trump follows her closely with a support of 47 percent.
In Nevada, another swing state, Trump has an edge over Harris with 48 percent support as opposed to the Vice President's 47 percent.
In Arizona, advantage for Harris as 53 percent of the total early voters have reportedly favoured her as opposed to Trump's 44 percent.
The scenario is different in Nevada where Trump leads Harris with 52 percent to 46 percent in terms of early voters.
The elections will be held on November 5.
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