After editor’s departure, Washington Post editor faces questions over phone hacking stories

NEW YORK — The Washington Post’s new editor faces questions about whether he made efforts to hide – at his own paper and elsewhere – his involvement in a British phone-hacking scandal from the time he worked for Rupert Murdoch a decade ago.

The week-long saga, which began with the abrupt departure from the Post’s executive editor on Sunday night, offers a window into the differences between approaches to journalism in Britain and the United States — and addresses sensitive issues of trust in the American media community as it approaches a presidential election controversial and seismic.

Publisher and CEO Will Lewis denied any wrongdoing in Britain and at the Post.

Lewis, a former editor of The Wall Street Journal, arrived in January to turn around the Post, which is awash in red ink and has seen its digital readership fall by half since 2020. Lewis is also vice chairman of the Associated Press Directors Press.

He announced a restructuring plan on Sunday, that didn’t include top news executive Sally Buzbee, who was apparently forced out or chose not to accept the demotion. Buzbee, a former AP news executive, led the Post’s newsroom for three years. She didn’t talk about her departure.

This week, the New York Times reported that Lewis told Buzbee in a phone conversation last month that a development in Prince Harry’s litigation over the phone hacking scandal did not warrant coverage in the Post.

What extensive case involved the alleged interception of voicemails from celebrities and royals by Murdoch-owned newspapers in Britain. Plaintiffs in a civil case alleged that Lewis was involved in efforts to contain trouble, in part by destroying evidence. Lewis denied this.

The Times said Lewis told Buzbee it would be a lapse in judgment to publish the story, which it eventually did. The Post said Friday that that report was inaccurate and Lewis did not pressure Buzbee not to publish any stories. “To suggest otherwise is completely false,” the newspaper said in a statement.

Buzbee did not respond to a message from the AP on Friday seeking comment on his own characterization of the conversation.

In mainstream American journalism, it is generally considered an ethical violation for an editor to engage in these types of news decisions, especially those that involve him.

Later on Thursday, National Public Radio media reporter David Folkenflik he wrote that Lewis, before taking over the Post, “repeatedly and heatedly” offered NPR an exclusive interview about his plans — in exchange for Folkenflik releasing a story he was writing about the executive’s involvement in the phone hacking case.

Folkenflik refused and the story executed on December 20, 2023.

Asked about this, Lewis called Folkenflik an activist rather than a journalist, telling the Post: “I had an off-the-record conversation with him before I joined the Post and about six months later he dusted himself off and made up some excuse to turn a story in a non-story.

Folkenflik said the offer, later confirmed by a press representative, was unofficial.

“Certainly journalists at The New York Times, CNN and his own newsroom concluded that what I reported this week about him and previously was newsworthy,” he said Friday. “I think that’s the verdict on our carefully reported journalism. He can say whatever he wants, but that doesn’t make it go away.”

In an email to team members on Friday, Lewis acknowledged he needed to improve how he listens and communicates. He invited them to a series of discussions next week about his restructuring plan.

“I know trust has been lost because of the scars of the past and the back and forth of this week,” Lewis wrote. “Let’s put this behind us and start assuming the best of intentions. If we do this, you will see where we are going in a different light. We don’t have to agree on everything, but we are all dedicated to building the future of The Post and charting our path forward together.”

In his comments to the Post, Lewis said he decided early on that he would not talk about his work in dealing with the fallout from the wiretapping scandal. “And is it right or wrong that I did it,” he said.

Lewis grew up as a journalist in Britain, where there is a more direct reporting style. One of the editors he hired in the Post’s restructuring, Robert Winnett, worked with Lewis at the Daily Telegraph. One of his biggest stories, about abusive expense accounts by members of Parliament, was based in part on records for which the newspaper allegedly paid – an approach that some American journalists would disapprove of.

Although some Post journalists have expressed questions and concerns about the restructuring plan Lewis is pursuing, he emphasized the need for decisive and urgent action. He told staff in a meeting that week that he can’t sugarcoat the fact that “people aren’t reading your stuff.”

The turmoil in one of the country’s most important sources of political journalism comes at a delicate moment, a month before Republicans nominate Donald Trump for president and the campaign against current President Joe Biden begins in earnest.

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Associated Press correspondent Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.

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David Bauder writes about media for the Associated Press. Follow him on http://twitter.com/dbauder.