Jennifer Rubin’s resignation from the Washington Post is surely imminent

The non-endorsement is the new endorsement! Hot on the heels of the Los Angeles Times’s decision not to endorse a candidate in the presidential race, a controversial call made by the paper’s owner Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong that has been met with multiple staff resignations, the Washington Post is following suit.

A statement published Friday reads: “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.”

Public statements from leading Post personalities have been aghast. Columnist Karen Attiah tweeted, “Jesus Christ.” Then, an hour later, “…” Then an hour later still, “What an absolute stab in the back. What an insult to those of us who have literally put our careers and lives on the line, to call out threats to human rights and democracy.”

Of most interest to Cockburn, however, were the remarks of fellow columnist and MSNBC mainstay Jennifer Rubin to the LA Times resignations earlier in the week. In response to Sewell Chan’s resignation from the Times, she wrote, “Bravo. All respect.” Followed by, “and where are the rest of them?”

The implication is clear: now that her paper, too, is refusing to endorse the sainted Kamala Harris, Rubin must be set to join the charge of resignations in disgust, along with Robert Kagan, as a sort-of Potomac Joan of Arc. The prospect brings a tear to Cockburn’s eye. Such bravery.

Rubin, who bills herself on X as a “NeverTrump, pro-democracy opinion writer” is yet to tweet regarding the Post‘s announcement. Presumably she is in the process of redrafting the most devastating open resignation letter to ever be published — Bari Weiss be damned.

The Post Guild, which has led several staff protests against management over job cuts and the paper’s direction, is not impressed. “The message from our chief executive, Will Lewis — not from the Editorial Board itself — makes us concerned that management interfered with the work of our memebers in Editorial,” a statement from the Guild reads. “According to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision to not to publish [sic] was made by the Post‘s owner, Jeff Bezos.”

There are many reasons why newspapers such as the LA Times and WaPo may want to endorse. Sure, it could be pressure from their wealthy owners — Bezos, for instance, would want government contracts for his Blue Origin rockets. But consider the alternatives: perhaps the top brass wants to shield its reporters from being branded “enemies of the people,” and is stepping in the way for their safety. Maybe the leadership is horrified by the Biden administration’s complicity in the thousands of deaths in Palestine — and doubts Trump would be any better, leaving staying silent in solidarity with the undeclared voters of Michigan as the most moral path forward. It could also be that Will Lewis, a Brit, wants to avoid accusations of foreign election interference (something that his countrymen at the Guardian and the Daily Mail are certainly not squeamish about). Or maybe, just maybe, some smart-aleck at these publications has done a cost-benefit analysis and worked out that the grandiose emissions from newspaper editorial board ivory towers end up doing more harm than good. (Cockburn notices that his superiors at this magazine have yet to make an endorsement during their six years in the US.)

Whatever the cause, Cockburn remains moved by the coming final stand of Jennifer Rubin, who’ll break her staff, bury it certain fathoms in the earth and, deeper than did ever plummet sound, drown her book. Because there’s no way she’d flip-flop on such a principled stance… right?