Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and owner of the Washington Post. AP Photo/John Locher.

Marty Baron, the famed former executive editor of the Washington Post, issued a rare and scathing rebuke of the paper over its decision to skip a presidential endorsement for the first time since 1988.

“This is cowardice, with democracy as its casualty,” Baron wrote in a post to social media. “[Trump] will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner [Jeff Bezos] (and others). Disturbing spinelessness at an institution famed for courage.”

In an extensive note made public on Friday, Post publisher Will Lewis announced the paper “will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election.”

“Nor in any future presidential election,” he added. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.”

The decision sparked outrage inside and outside the Post, with some staffers going so far as to object to it publicly on social media.

Paul Farhi, a veteran media reporter who worked for years at the Post, told Mediaite he was surprised by the news.

“This is surprising. It’s a change of policy,” he said. “They have done an endorsement over the last forty years or so.”

Speculation abounded on social media Friday that the decision was made by Lewis, a British newsman who made his name working for a slew of conservative news outlets, including The Telegraph and various properties in Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Yet, according to reporting in the Washington Post itself, the decision to scrap the endorsement was made by Jeff Bezos, the billionaire Amazon founder and owner of the Post who could face retribution from Donald Trump should he be elected once again as president. In Trump’s first term in office, Amazon accused him of punishing the company as retribution for the Post’s coverage.

Farhi pointed out that the Post will continue to publish editorials about presidential candidates, and said the decision to decline an endorsement is perplexing.

“Maybe you don’t endorse Trump, maybe you don’t endorse Harris, but do you think you’re not going to editorialize about this policy or that policy?  Of course you’re going to. I don’t quite understand why you wouldn’t want to say that in our judgment this person is better than that person.”

Farhi added: “I’m mystified as to how the presidential election is somehow different from all of the other things you editorialize about.”

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