The Washington Post announced in early June that its executive editor, Sally Buzbee, will leave the company and Matt Murray, the former editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, will temporarily serve as the Post's executive editor until the presidential election this November. Following the election, Robert Winnett, the current deputy editor of the U.K.'s Telegraph, will replace Murray as the Post's permanent executive editor.Â
The Journal and The Telegraph are considered among the most conservative mainstream newspapers in the U.S. and U.K., respectively. As such, the announcement that their editors will lead the Post, a mostly liberal outlet, reportedly caused concerns that the newsroom could see a rightward shift.Â
'Counter to the more stringent reporting ethics' It's "certainly fair to question why the Post — with its very American, play-it-straight self-conception — will soon hand its core news product to a longtime editor at the Bible of British Conservatism (with a big C)," said Jon Allsop at the Columbia Journalism Review.Â
When Winnett takes over in November, experts say some of the commonplace practices at The Telegraph will be contrary to American media. This includes a "payment of a six-figure sum to obtain the documents crucial to the expenses investigation, [which] run counter to the more stringent reporting ethics followed by American news organizations," said Michael M. Grynbaum at The New York Times.Â
'Douse that thought with flame retardant' While some may "speculate that the new Brit-heavy, Murdoch-pedigreed leadership will turn the Post into a fiery right-wing tablet," you should "douse that thought with flame retardant," said Jack Shafer at Politico. "None of the new crew seem to tilt that way, not even Murray when he ran the news pages of the Journal," Shafer said. He noted that under Murray's leadership, the conservative Journal was the outlet that broke the Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump story in 2018. If anything, some experts say, the Post is less likely to be damaged by these changes than local news outlets. |