More Washington Post drama as owner Jeff Bezos speaks out - Poynter (2024)

Jeff Bezos has broken his silence.

After two-plus weeks of controversies and questions involving new Washington Post publisher and CEO Will Lewis, the Post’s owner finally at least acknowledged all that has happened by writing a note to Post senior editors on Tuesday. He reportedly sent the note while yachting in Mykonos in the Greek Isles.

Bezos seemed to kind of, sort of show his support for the embattled Lewis, but it was unlikely to squash criticisms of Post leaders, which include Lewis and incoming editor Rob Winnett, emanating from inside the walls of the Post.

Here’s what Bezos wrote:

“Team — I know you’ve already heard this from Will, but I wanted to also weigh in directly: the journalistic standards and ethics at The Post will not change. To be sure, it can’t be business as usual at The Post. The world is evolving rapidly and we do need to change as a business. With your support, we’ll do that and lead this great institution into the future. But, as the newsroom leaders who’ve been shaping and guiding our coverage, you also know our standards at The Post have always been very high.”

Bezos added, “That can’t change — and it won’t. You have my full commitment on maintaining the quality, ethics, and standards we all believe in. A huge thank you for continuing to do the work that makes us all proud, and makes this institution so important.”

All nice sentiments, of course. But will it satisfy those who work at the Post?

One Post staffer told The Daily Beast earlier this week, “I don’t know how Will and Rob can stay on at this point. They have lost the entire newsroom.”

CNN’s Oliver Darcy wrote, “Inside The Post’s newsroom, morale has plunged in recent months as alarmed staffers express frustration over Lewis’ conduct and worries over the future direction of the newspaper under his leadership. Interviews with nearly a dozen Post staffers and others familiar with the internal dynamics of the newspaper this week revealed a workforce that has grown increasingly dismayed by the situation, with some searching for work elsewhere.”

However, Puck’s Dylan Byers wrote in his latest media newsletter, “Bezos’s note was inarguably a declaration of support for Lewis, even if it was muted. He aligned himself with his chief executive (‘I know you’ve already heard this from Will’) and stressed that Lewis’s leadership would not undermine the Post’s ethics and standards. Sure, Bezos left the door open to remove Lewis in the event that the Times or (the Post) unearthed more damning details of wrongdoing — that door has always been open to him, of course; he owns the joint — and he didn’t really shed any light on whether Winnett would ever step foot in the Post newsroom. (In truth, interim executive editor Matt Murray has become so instantly popular that there isn’t a leadership void.) But the general message was that Bezos has Lewis’s back, and that the Post staff need to live with that. And, after a brief rumspringa, it was high time to go about the hard work of reversing the company’s $77 million in losses and 50 percent decline in readership.”

Of course, we couldn’t go a day without another story about Lewis.

The Guardian’s Anna Isaac and Stephanie Kirchgaessner wrote Wednesday that Lewis once advised then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Johnson’s senior officials to “clean up” their phones during a COVID-era political scandal.

Isaac and Kirchgaessner wrote, “The advice is alleged to have been given in December 2021 and January 2022 as top officials were under scrutiny for potential violations of pandemic restrictions, a scandal which was known as ‘Partygate’.”

The reporters added, “The claims suggest Lewis’s advice contradicted an email sent to staff at No 10 in December 2021 which instructed them not to destroy any material that could be relevant to an investigation into the flagrant breaking of Covid lockdown rules by Johnson and officials who worked for him. Sources said they understood they were being advised to remove photos and messages from their phones that could be damaging in any investigations.”

At the time, Lewis was not working for any mainstream media organization and was an informal adviser to Johnson. In late 2023, Lewis was knighted at Johnson’s recommendation.

The Guardian reported that spokespersons for both Lewis and Johnson said The Guardian’s story is “untrue.”

Former President Donald Trump is, once again, going off on Fox News and, specifically, former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. Here’s what Trump posted Wednesday on his Truth Social:

Nobody can ever trust Fox News, and I am one of them, with the weak and ineffective RINO, Paul Ryan, on its Board of Directors. He’s a total lightweight, a failed and pathetic Speaker of the House, and a very disloyal person. Romney was bad, but Paul Ryan made him look worse. As a team, they never had a chance. Rupert and Lachlan, get that dog off your Board – You don’t need him. ALL YOU NEED IS TRUMP. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

Last week during an appearance on Fox News, Ryan told Neil Cavuto that Trump was unfit for office. Ryan said, “I think it really is just character at the end of the day. And the fact that if you’re willing to put yourself above the Constitution, an oath you swear when you take office in federal office — whether it’s president or a member of Congress, you swear an oath to the Constitution — and if you’re willing to suborn it to yourself, I think that makes you unfit for office.”

This is far from the first time Trump has called for Fox to kick Ryan off its board — in language almost identical to what he posted Wednesday.

As often as Trump takes to social media to go off on Fox News, he is still a dedicated Fox News viewer and, apparently, advocate. That’s according to an analysis of Trump’s Truth Social released Wednesday by Howard Polskin, president and founder of TheRighting.

(TheRighting describes itself as a company that aggregates articles from various right-wing news outlets and “aims to help inform mainstream and liberal audiences about right-wing viewpoints and news not on their radar that are shaping political opinion across the country.”)

In May, TheRighting found, Trump linked to Fox News Channel 56 times — more than any other outlet by far. The next closest was Right Side Broadcasting Network, to which he linked 26 times. That was followed by FoxNews.com and Newsmax with 11 links each.

Polskin wrote in a statement, “This analysis shows that despite Mr. Trump’s hot and cold relationship with the Fox News Channel, it was clearly his number one choice in May to shower his followers with links to content that he obviously felt were aligned with his messages. The big surprise was his preference for fringe outlets like RSBN and Real America’s Voice over more established outlets like the Washington Examiner and the Washington Times.”

Polskin noted that Trump did completely ignore some right-wing news sources, such as Daily Signal, Epoch Times, Frank Speech, The Gateway Pundit, Infowars, RedState, Blaze Media and Western Journal.

As far as mainstream news outlets, Trump linked to The Wall Street Journal once. He linked several times to other outlets such as The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Politico, The New Yorker, NBC News and Reuters.

Polskin said, “While Trump consistently disparages mainstream or progressive news outlets as ‘fake news,’ he’ll link to those sources if it shows the Biden campaign or Democrats in a poor light.”

The great Willie Mays died Tuesday. He was 93.

Mays was an American icon. Not just a baseball legend, but an American legend — one of its most famous and significant people ever. Some say he’s the greatest baseball player of all time. I would agree with those people. There are plenty of remembrances of his life and career out there, but I wanted to link to a few of the ones I found interesting:

• The New York Times’ Kurt Streeter with “Remembering Willie Mays as Both Untouchable and Human.”
• The Washington Post’s Brian Gross with “The legacy of Willie Mays through his iconic baseball cards and career numbers.”
• For The Ringer, Rany Jazayerli with “Willie Mays Was the Greatest Baseball Player Who Ever Lived.”
• ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian with “Why there will never be another MLB player like Willie Mays.”
• Longtime Washington Post columnist Thomas Boswell with “Willie Mays was as good — and as cool — as anyone who ever played.”
• Wall Street Journal sports columnist Jason Gay with “Willie Mays Will Be Forever.”
• CNNs Ray Sanchez with “Willie Mays was supposed to be honored at a Negro League tribute game. The event takes on new meaning after his death.”

Last Sunday’s Indiana Fever-Chicago Sky WNBA game on CBS averaged 2.25 million viewers, making it the most-watched WNBA game on any network in 23 years. The game featured former college rivals Caitlin Clark (Iowa) and Angel Reese (LSU). Two of their college games are among the most-watched women’s basketball games of all time. They met in the NCAA Tournament during the Elite Eight round this past spring with 12.3 million watching on ESPN. Their meeting in the 2023 national championship averaged 9.9 million.

But back to the WNBA. Front Office Sports’ Margaret Fleming reports that all of the national networks that show WNBA games — ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Ion, NBA TV and now CBS — have set single-game TV ratings for their network this season. All those games featured Clark.

Hey, USA Basketball, are you sure you don’t want Clark on your team?

TNT “Inside the NBA” analyst Charles Barkley recently announced that he planned to retire after next season. It’s expected that Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns TNT, will not be among the networks securing NBA television rights when the current deals end after the 2024-25 season. (Most believe the rights will go to ABC/ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime in a deal that could be announced soon.)

Barkley, 61, said that no matter what happens, he plans to retire after next season. Even though he has hinted at retirement in the past, he sounded sincere this time. I believe that he believes he will retire. I’m just not sure he will.

The Athletic’s insightful sports media columnist Richard Deitsch wrote, “I have interviewed Barkley many times, but I don’t want to overstate my insight about him. I don’t know much about his life away from his job. But in all of my interactions with him over more than a dozen years, including once interviewing him in front of nearly 1,000 people at the South By Southwest festival, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him alone. He’s always with someone. If you have never read this story about Barkley and a gentleman named Lin Wang, I think you’ll find it illuminating because it offers insight into Barkley’s desire to be around people. This is why I don’t think he will leave sports broadcasting.”

Deitsch noted that Barkley made his comments at the end of a long NBA season, a busy work schedule, and in the wake of topsy-turvy TV rights negotiations that clearly frustrated Barkley.

Deitsch wrote, “I don’t think this is a negotiating ploy because he’d have no problem getting paid $15 million to $20 million annually in a future deal. I also think he legitimately meant what he said last week. But save this prediction: I don’t think it will stick. With rest and a recharge, Barkley will continue on television beyond 2025.”

• On Poynter’s site, republished with permission from Northwestern University’s Medill Local News Initiative, Mark Caro with “The Marion County Record drew national support following a police raid, but the weekly still needs help.”
• Tom Brady goes on Colin Cowherd’s FSI show and talks about preparing to be an NFL broadcaster.
• Awful Announcing with “The 2024 half-year sports media awards,” including Biggest Story, Best Call, Best and Worst Moment, Shocking Moment, and many other categories.

• Great work from the Los Angeles Times’ Laura King (with photos from Marcus Yam) in “They fled war, then found new hope through Shakespeare’s toughest play.”

• GlobalFact 11 — June 26-28. Get your virtual ticket to the world’s largest and most impactful annual summit for professional fact-checking.
• Get an AI ethics framework for your newsroom. Start here.
• Will Work for Impact brings investigations to life.
• Work-Life Chemistry six-week newsletter course: Ditch work-life balance for a more sustainable approach.

Have feedback or a tip? Email Poynter senior media writer Tom Jones at tjones@poynter.org.

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