Another Washington Post Writer Quits Over Non-Endorsement
Another Washington Post reporter has quit following the paper’s decision to not endorse Kamala Harris for president. Writer Molly Roberts, a member of the Post’s editorial board, resigned on Monday, according to The New York Times, making her the Post’s latest writer to ditch the paper in recent days.
The Harvard grad had been with the paper for eight years, and had been a member of its editorial page since 2018, according to her LinkedIn. Roberts wrote about “technology and society,” according to her WaPo bio. Her last story for the Post, which focuses on the electoral college, was published on Monday morning.
Roberts’ exit comes after Friday’s announcement that the Post will not be endorsing a candidate in this year’s presidential race; the Post had endorsed every Democratic presidential candidate dating back to Bill Clinton in 1992.
Publisher Will Lewis said the decision was about “returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.” Later on Friday, word broke that the Washington Post editorial board had already written an endorsement for Harris but owner Jeff Bezos personally nixed it.
Roberts joins a growing list of Post employees who have left the paper in recent days over its decision.
On Sunday, Post columnist Michele Norris resigned over the scrapped Harris endorsement. Norris had been with the paper for five years in her role as a columnist and consultant for Post Opinions.
“As of yesterday, I have decided to resign from my role as a columnist for The Washington Post — a newspaper that I love. In a moment like this, everyone needs to make their own decisions,” she wrote in a post on X explaining why she’s stepping down.
“The Washington Post’s decision to withhold an endorsement that had been written & approved in an election where core democratic principles are at stake was a terrible mistake & an insult to the paper’s own longstanding standard of regularly endorsing candidates since 1976,” she continued.
Editor at large Robert Kagan also submitted his resignation on Friday. A number of other high-profile media names have ripped the paper in the meantime, including Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
Adam Chitwood contributed to this report.
