Democracy's not the only thing that 'dies in darkness'

I have been a subscriber to The Washington Post for 26 years.

I devoured it each day while riding the Metro from my home in Northern Virginia to the National Press Building in Washington D.C., where Stars and Stripes was published.

When I transferred to Stripes’ overseas headquarters in Europe in 2004, I kept a digital subscription out of loyalty, and because I believed papers like WaPo were essential to a thriving democracy.

That ended this afternoon with the newspaper’s failure to endorse the Democratic candidate for president, Kamala Harris, who is a champion for a democracy they allege to care so damn much about.

I am done with them.

As a longtime newspaperman, and reader, this is a very sad day for me, and an absolutely tragic one for our nation, as we try to withstand a fascist onslaught from the Right in America that is led by a moralless, soulless, vindictive man who has proven beyond any doubt that he means our country harm.

There have seldom been more dangerous times in this country.

Why, just short of 46 months ago, in fact, this was the front page of their newspaper:

That “president” who “incited the crowd to acts of insurrection and violence” is now back to try it all again, and the only person standing in his way is the woman running against him.

Endorsing Harris wasn’t a hard call. It was the onlycall.

Their failure to make this endorsement goes beyond a catastrophic lack of judgment, because weknow theyknow that what they are doing is nothing but a gutless attempt to appease a would-be dictator.

Do not let them try to spin this any other way, which is what they are currently doing while they hemorrhage readers and try to stave off the unrelenting criticism that is coming at them in waves.

Let this be the latest.

And, if you don’t take my word for just how horrid this decision was, have a look at this powerful statement from former Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron:

"This is cowardice, a moment of darkness that will leave democracy as a casualty. Donald Trump will celebrate this as an invitation to further intimidate The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos (and other media owners). History will mark a disturbing chapter of spinelessness at an institution famed for courage."

Read that again, because it is chilling …

I have been on the record many times saying that newspaper endorsements don’t mean a whole heckuva lot as far as moving the needle either way on voters’ decisions at the ballot box , but they do represent the values of the people who run these newspapers.

In this case, WaPo put their alleged values at the very top of the paper for everybody to see each day:

Democracy Dies in Darkness

Incredible, isn’t it?

I am also painfully aware that since the billionaire Jeff Bezos purchased the newspaper, those values have been on a slow and steady decline that accelerated with the hiring of the disgusting Will Lewis to become the CEO of the newspaper.

Among Lewis’s stops during his disreputable career were editor of conservative Telegraph in the United Kingdom; publisher of Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal; and consultant to Conservative UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

How a guy with such a warped notion of sound editorial judgment can run any newsroom completely sickens me.

As I type this, it is Bezos who is owning this odious decision not to endorse, and it flowed like sludge down to Lewis and into the editorial offices.

Worse — and I will predict this will only get worse — it is being reported that the paper had an endorsement of Harris ready to be printed this weekend, so I am positing again that this was nothing but a reckless decision to appease the America-attacking Trump.

In closing, I want to type again that a newspaper needs two things that are absolutely critical to its success. Without them, they are worthless to their readers.

The first is accuracy. A newspaper simply must prove itself to be consistently accurate to be considered trustworthy. If a newspaper gets things wrong, they are worthless.

The second thing is credibility. Readers must believe their newspaper is credible and worth trusting with their precious time.

When a newspaper with the logo “Democracy Dies in Darkness”fails to endorse the candidate that stands up for that Democracy, they are not being accurate or credible.

They, in fact, are completely worthless.

Dead.

D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. You can find all his work here.