But angry responses were quickly replaced by two questions: how did it happen, and how could readers best protest?
At the centre of the storm is William Lewis, the British newspaperman who became Washington Post publisher and CEO in January. When Lewis broke the decision to staff last week, he said the newspaper, was just moving back to its roots in declining to back a presidential candidate. This was a return to the convention of non-endorsement the Post gave up 48 years ago to support the Democrat Jimmy Carter.
Among early public reactions was a call to unsubscribe, alongside a string of attacks on the failure to take a stand against Donald Trump, including from comedian Steve Martin, actor Mark Hamill and the Watergate journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
Woodward and Bernstein said: "This decision 11 days out from the 2024 presidential election ignores the Washington Post's own reportorial evidence on the threat Donald Trump poses to democracy.
Denne historien er fra November 01, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
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Denne historien er fra November 01, 2024-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Power in the darkness
Wolf Hall is back. As the extraordinary epic about King Henry VIII and his vengeful entourage edges to a climax, Timothy Spall reveals what it was like to play Cromwell's nemesis
It's time for Trump's instincts to be called what they are: fascist
There is a good chance that on 5 November, Americans will elect the first fascist president of the United States.
CASTLES IN THE AIR
It was meant to be a dream development of mansions in the Turkish hills. But 13 years on, Burj AI Babas is a half-built ghost town, and a microcosm of the scandal-hit construction sector under Erdoğan. Will the buyers ever get to move in?
Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is unravelling the mysteries of grey matter – even as hers betrays her The brain collector
ALEXANDRA MORTON-HAYWARD, a 35-year-old mortician turned molecular palaeontologist, had been behind the wheel of her rented Vauxhall for five hours, motoring across three countries, when a torrential storm broke loose on the plains of Belgium.
Dark times Blackouts spark fears of wider collapse
Maria Elena Cárdenas is 76 and lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana's colonial old town.
Washington Post sparks fury over decision not to endorse
Fury and shock ripped through liberal America last weekend after news that the Washington Post, home of the Watergate scandal exposé, will not endorse Kamala Harris for president.
The great space waste
From chaotic collisions to depletion of the ozone layer, the thousands of satellites in orbit around Earth have the potential to wreak havoc
New heights Teen Sherpa's fight for climbing equality
Growing up as a sherpa in Nepal, Nima Rinji Sherpa was used to his relatives performing superhuman feats on the mountains.
Plastic cave made in Spain keeps Amazonian culture alive
It is not yet dawn in Ulupuwene, an Indigenous village in the Brazilian Amazon, but the Wauja people have already risen to prepare for the festive day ahead.
Putin's call to de-dollarise alarms some at Brics talks
Vladimir Putin opened the expanded Brics summit last month by issuing a call for an alternative international payments system that could prevent the US using the dollar as a political weapon.
