Saturday, June 8, 2024

Media: "'Washington Post' CEO tried to kill a story about himself. It wasn’t the first time"

We don't link to National Public Radio that often, mainly because I can't figure out what they do there. They seem like they might be journalists, but not really.* So if there is a story out there we usually check to see if someone else is going with it. In this case it's all NPR.

June 7, 2024:

The Washington Post has written twice this spring about allegations that have cropped up in British court proceedings involving its new publisher and CEO, Will Lewis. In both instances Lewis pushed his newsroom chief hard not to run the story.

According to several people at the newspaper, then-Executive Editor Sally Buzbee emerged rattled from both discussions in March and in May. Lewis’ efforts were first reported by the New York Times. The second Post article in May, which was thorough and detailed, ran just days before Lewis announced his priorities for the paper, which is financially troubled.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Lewis denied the publisher had pressured his editor, saying, "That is not true. That is not what happened."

Buzbee did not recuse herself from the stories, which were overseen by Managing Editor Matea Gold, and drew upon reporters from three desks. Lewis did not block the story from running. He unexpectedly announced Buzbee’s departure on Sunday night, about three-and-a-half weeks after the longer story ran, along with a restructuring of the newsroom’s leadership structure.

It is not the first time that Lewis has engaged in intense efforts to head off coverage about him in ways that many U.S. journalists would consider deeply inappropriate.

A surprise offer
In December, I wrote the first comprehensive piece based on new documents cited in a London courtroom alleging that Lewis had helped cover up a scandal involving widespread criminal practices at media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids. (Lewis has previously denied the allegations.)

At that time, Lewis had just been named publisher and CEO by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, but had not yet started. In several conversations, Lewis repeatedly — and heatedly —offered to give me an exclusive interview about the Post’s future, as long as I dropped the story about the allegations....

....MUCH MORE
*One of the oddest things you're ever going to see from a wannabe news organization:

If you're not going to cover a story, don't cover it. The tweet is just ridiculous (deserving ridicule)

But it wasn't just the supercilious pre-election sniff: "waste our time...". The following spring of '21 we see:

Correction April 1, 2021
A previous version of this story said U.S. intelligence had discredited the laptop story. U.S. intelligence officials have not made a statement to that effect.

Appended to "Hunter Biden's Memoir 'Beautiful Things' Seeks To Tell Just Where He's Been"

Good grief, as the kids say: "Get a room."

Finally, May 26, 2024:

....“The defendant’s laptop is real.” With those words and pictures like this one of Biden using crack, the Justice Department introduced the Hunter Biden laptop as evidence in his upcoming trial over federal gun violations...

—Professor Jonathan Turley, “The Laptop is Real”: 
 
So take what you can use on the WaPo story but bear in mind there may be an agenda in play on the part of the publisher.
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