WaPo CEO Will Lewis tried to kill the hacking stories through backroom deals
As we’ve discussed in previous posts, the Washington Post’s new CEO Will Lewis is up to his neck in alleged (!) criminality and not-so-alleged unethical journalism. Will Lewis is British, and he cut his teeth in British tabloids, specifically News Group Newspapers’ print media. Lewis was a major figure in Rupert Murdoch’s British media arm during the pre-Leveson heyday of phone hacking, blagging and other crimes. Lewis was eventually shifted over to Murdoch’s American media arm, almost like he was specifically being whitewashed. He worked for Dow Jones/WSJ for a time, and then Jeff Bezos recently appointed Lewis as the new CEO of WaPo.
In May, Prince Harry won several motions in his long-running lawsuit against NGN. Basically, Harry’s lawsuit can now name names of NGN editors and journalists who were responsible, years ago, for all of the criminal activity around royal coverage. Lewis was one of the names. Last month, we heard a curious story that Lewis wanted WaPo to minimize the fact that he has been implicated by name in Harry’s lawsuit. Then on Sunday, WaPo’s executive editor Sally Buzbee quit that bitch, and the New York Times reports that in the weeks before she quit, she clashed with Lewis over WaPo’s coverage of Harry’s lawsuit and Lewis specifically wanted her to kill WaPo’s coverage. There was even a slight insinuation that Lewis was about to demote Buzbee partially because she wanted WaPo to cover Harry’s lawsuit. Well, it’s even worse than that. Apparently, Lewis has had a bee in his bonnet for a while now about how the American media is covering his alleged history of criminal activity when he was in the UK. From NPR’s David Folkenflik:
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.
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. At that time, the same spokesperson, who works directly for Lewis from the U.K. and has advised him since his days at the Wall Street Journal, confirmed to me that an explicit offer was on the table: drop the story, get the interview.
NPR published the story nonetheless. On Thursday, the spokesperson declined comment about that offer. That first interview appears to have gone to Puck’s Dylan Byers. It ran a day after the Post’s piece in May.
As NPR points out, American journalists and editors simply don’t operate this way. The American media – when dealing with itself – isn’t a scratch-my-back culture. NPR points out that when a journalist or editor is caught up in a crime, their newspaper or outlet generally takes pride in covering the story thoroughly. This is a specifically British mentality, that Lewis believed he could have stories about his alleged criminality “killed” through backroom deals with journalists and they would never breathe a word. As Press Watchers notes in their editorial: “Doing what he did violates a core doctrine of American journalism: that editors and publishers are not supposed to interfere with their own newsrooms’ coverage of issues in which they have a personal conflict of interest. It’s really about as basic as it gets.” Press Watchers says it plainly: “Having crossed that line, Lewis should hand in his resignation as a result. Or Post owner Jeff Bezos should fire him.”
Photos courtesy of Getty.
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