'Bombshell': Washington Post reporters probing own bosses
A screenshot of the Drudge Report documenting severe troubles at the Washington Post on Monday, June 17, 2024.
Journalism in America no longer is what it once was: A reporting of the facts on an issue, including opinions from experts and those with alternative views – basically covered in the traditional "Who, What, When, Where, Why and How?"
Now those practices are described as providing a "false balance," or "bothsideism," where, one leftist online site describes, "journalists may present evidence and arguments out of proportion to the actual evidence for each side, or may omit information that would establish one side's claims as baseless." Some journalists openly have condemned including information that does not align with the politically correct position.
That ideology claims the global warming agenda has been handicapped by such thinking. Likewise the arguments that support a belief in evolution over creation. And vicious attacks on President Donald Trump when he charges that there was election misbehavior during the 2020 president race.
Leftist want Americans to believe, without hesitation, they are at fault for global warming, evolution explains everything and Joe Biden, the now feeble octogenarian who was declared "diminished" by a federal prosecutor, is as sharp as a tack and drew more votes that Trump, legally.
And it's hitting even the high-profile journalistic enterprises, like the Washington Post.
That organization, with a multiple of priority and standards changes since Amazon chief Jeff Bezos bought it years ago, now apparently has its reporters investigating their own bosses.
On top of a multitude of scandals already appearing at the publication, there's now a 3,000-word investigative story about new publisher William Lewis, and an incoming top editor.
It stunningly charges that Lewis "declined to comment through a Post spokesperson in response to a list of detailed questions" from his own reporters.
Axios reported the turmoil is atop his handling of several controversies in just the past few days.
One is a "phone-hacking scandal" that happened in Britain's Fleet Street in the 2000s, and apparently involved Lewis.
The New York Times was joining in with the Post's investigation of the Post. And it charges two decades ago Lewis "used fraudulently obtained phone and company records in newspaper articles," and the Post explores the ethics of Robert Winnett, a London editor who is moving to the Post's office.
The Post even conceded former senior managing editor Cameron Barr, who left last year, will oversee the paper's coverage of Lewis.
A report at Mediaite headlined its charges, "Scathing Washington Post Expose alleges incoming editor used 'thief' to aid reporting."
It described the work of the Post reporters as a "bombshell" that uncovered the past for Winnett.
"The exposé, which relies on unpublished book drafts and documents from self-proclaimed 'thief' John Ford, reportedly claims he used deceitful methods to aid Winnett’s reporting at the Sunday Times in London," the report explained.
It notes Ford was arrested in 2010 for trying to steal former Prime Minister Tony Blair's memoir.
Winnett now is at the Telegraph, and "allegedly reassured Ford during his arrest and arranged legal assistance, emphasizing the 'remarkable omerta' within British journalism."
The story charges Ford's drafts, seen by the Post, cover his "his involvement in obtaining confidential details about Britain’s elite through unethical means, with many stories seemingly aligning with Winnett’s published work."
The dispute is compounded by the information about Lewis, who at the Sunday Times in 2004 linked to stories allegedly based on hacked phones.
The Times explained the published account suggests Lewis and Winnett used fraudulently obtained phone and company records in their publication.
"The use of deception, hacking and fraud is at the heart of a long-running British newspaper scandal, one that toppled a major tabloid in 2010 and led to years of lawsuits by celebrities who said that reporters improperly obtained their personal documents and voice mail messages," the report noted.
The report charged articles published were from material obtained surreptitiously by a private detective.
Other Post upheavals have included Sally Buzbee's abrupt departure, and reports that Lewis had objected to coverage of a new story in which he was involved.
Further, according to the report, "Lewis repeatedly offered an exclusive interview to an NPR reporter if the reporter agreed not to write about allegations against him in a British phone-hacking scandal, according to an account by that reporter."
Explained NPR in its comments about the disputes.
"A vast chasm divides common practices in the fiercely competitive confines of British journalism, where Lewis and Winnett made their mark, and what passes muster in the American news media. In several instances, their alleged conduct would raise red flags at major U.S. outlets, including The Washington Post."
Those issues include "a six-figure payment for a major scoop; planting a junior reporter in a government job to secure secret documents; and relying on a private investigator who used subterfuge to secure private documents from their computers and phones. The investigator was later arrested."
It noted, "The stakes are high. Post journalists ask what values Lewis and Winnett will import to the paper, renowned for its coverage of the Nixon-era Watergate scandals and for holding the most powerful figures in American life to account in the generations since."
The Post lost $77 million last year and about half of its digital audience since 2020.
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