Last week, editorial page editor David Shipley told the editorial board that approval was still pending, commenting “this is obviously something our owner has an interest in.”

Both the news and editorial staff were “stunned” by the news that broke on Friday that Bezos had decided not to take a stand after all.

“We thought we were quibbling over the language — not over whether there would be an endorsement,” the Post employee told Chan.

Bezos, the tech billionaire who founded Amazon, bought the Post for $250 million in 2013. As the New York Times reported in July 2023, Bezos has “taken a more active role in the magazine’s operations this year.”

The decision not to endorse comes just days after the Los Angeles Times — also breaking with tradition — opted to skip the usual public endorsement of a presidential candidate.

The Times’ owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong, has said it was the editorial board’s call not to endorse, but the LA Times Guild issued a statement protesting that Soon-Shiong is “unfairly shifting blame onto editorial staff.”

The Guild’s statement that it is “deeply concerned” by the lack of support prompted three editors to quit in protest: Mariel Garza, Karin Klein and Pulitzer Prize winner Robert Greene.

There was also widespread outrage among journalists and the public, many of whom said they were canceling their subscriptions.

On Thursday, the LAT Guild asked subscribers not to cancel: “Before you hit the ‘cancel’ button: That subscription guarantees the salaries of hundreds of journalists in our newsroom. Our member journalists work every day to keep readers informed during these tumultuous times.”