Washington Post senior management under pressure

British journalists chosen by billionaire Jeff Bezos to relaunch the Washington Post are placed on the defensive by a series of articles in the American media questioning their professional ethics.

The daily itself published a long investigation on Sunday exploring the past of its editor, William Lewis, who took office in January, and of a long-time collaborator, Robert Winnett, who is due to start as deputy editor in the fall.

“I am proud to work with colleagues who are not afraid to scrutinize those in power. And even the new boss,” said newsroom employee Fenit Nirappil on X to underline the unusual nature of the exercise.

A scratchy investigation

The article from Washington Post suggests in particular that Mr. Lewis signed in 2004, while he was working at Sunday Timesan article on the situation of a professional soccer team derived from information obtained in a potentially illicit manner by a private investigator, John Ford, working for the British weekly, one of the largest in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Ford has previously stated that he was informally recruited to obtain confidential information by misleading those he spoke to about his real identity and intentions.

The practice is considered illegal under UK law unless it is shown to be necessary to obtain information in the public interest.

Robert Winnett is said to have used a similar ploy, once again relying on the action of Mr. Ford, to produce an article in 2002 identifying a list of British personalities who wished to obtain an old model of Mercedes limousine described as “the limousine of the Nazis » due to its popularity in Germany in the 1930s.

Mr. Winnett is also criticized in the article in Washington Post to have personally intervened to help the investigator when he found himself in the crosshairs of justice for having attempted to illegally obtain a copy of a book by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

While they both worked for the newspaper The Telegraph, the two British journalists also collaborated in 2009 on a shocking series dealing with excessive spending by MPs which would have been made possible by the purchase of data from an investigator for more than $130,000. This type of payment is seen as unethical by major American media.

The cavalier practices of some British media turned scandalous at the time when it was revealed that a tabloid owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch had hacked the communications of celebrities, politicians and crime victims to obtain private information.

Mr. Lewis was called in for reinforcements in 2010 to try, according to his own words, to “clean up” within the group and to ensure that these practices would no longer take place.

However, a British court recently approved a lawsuit by known hacking victims, including Prince Harry, who suspect the publisher of having participated at the time in a plot to cover up the scandal.

Buy silence

THE New York Times recently reported that Mr. Lewis had also intervened within the editorial staff of the Washington Post in May to discourage an editorial manager, Sally Buzbee, to publish an article on this subject.

The manager subsequently resigned to protest against a reorganization of the newsroom deemed necessary by the publisher to revive the daily, which loses tens of millions of dollars per year.

Mr. Lewis, who denies any inappropriate internal intervention to protect his image, was also recently singled out by an NPR journalist who claimed to have been pressured by him not to publish an article about the trial.

Journalist David Folkenflik claims the publisher offered him an exclusive interview related to his arrival at the Washington Post in exchange for his silence. The ploy did not work, and NPR moved forward with its reporting.

All these developments are fueling discontent within the newsroom of the Washington Post, which remains, despite its difficulties, one of the most influential American media.

It was not possible to know on Monday from the management of the daily whether the behavior of the two targeted leaders was the subject of internal checks. The journalists’ union did not respond to our requests for an interview.

Margaret Sullivan, a media analyst at Columbia University, asked wryly on Sunday’s British accent.”