Washington Post reporter ‘heartbroken’ after mom cancels Harris endorsement: ‘It hurts us, not our owner’

A mother’s love is more fickle than we thought.

A concerned Washington Post reporter went to X on Saturday to find that her mother had canceled her subscription to the paper to protest owner Jeff Bezos’ decision not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. .

“My mom just told me she canceled her subscription to the Washington Post. She reads every story of mine. It was a heartbreaking call,” said Caroline Kitchener, who covers abortion issues for the paper.

“I understand why she did it,” the writer continued. “Post journalists had no role in this decision. But when you cancel, you’re hurting us, not our owner…

“I totally understand if you’ve lost faith in our owner, but please don’t lose faith in us.”

In an X thread, Kitchener said she made the case to her mother and “asked her to reconsider” – but offered no indication that her argument had been successful.

“The Washington Post abortion reporter just got rejected by her own mother,” said conservative commentator Mark Hemingway.

Bezos’ decision — which will also stand for “any future presidential election,” according to publisher Will Lewis — follows the Los Angeles Times, whose billionaire owner Patrick Soon-Shiong also refused to issue an endorsement, leading to a flood of resignations. from its editorial office.

Bezos’ decision also led to a public outcry from editors and top writers at the Washington Post.

“I didn’t sign up to be a journalist to keep quiet about what matters most. I didn’t come here to be a coward. Some of us really, really believe in speaking truth to power. We were betrayed today,” Washington Post columnist Karen Attiah wrote on Friday X.

A WashPo editor, Robert Kagan, has already resigned over the decision, while 2,000 readers canceled their subscriptions within 24 hours, which one employee said was “an extremely high number,” Semaphore reported.

However, a source familiar with the numbers dismissed the cancellations, telling the outlet that they are “not statistically significant.”