“Time TV”
—
“I don’t know a single particular person on the Submit who thinks the present scenario with the writer and supposed new editor can stand,” David Maraniss, an affiliate editor who has labored at The Submit for practically 5 a long time and received two Pulitzer Prizes on the newspaper, wrote in a candid Fb publish. “There may be a number of, however very only a few.”
Maraniss additionally zinged Jeff Bezos, the billionaire proprietor of The Submit who put in Lewis, writing that he’s “not of and for the Submit or he would perceive.”
Scott Higham, one other Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at The Submit, echoed Maraniss’ name for Lewis to exit the newspaper.
“Will Lewis must step down for the great of The Submit and the general public,” Higham replied in a touch upon Maraniss’ publish. “He has misplaced the newsroom and can by no means win it again.”
Spokespersons for Bezos and The Submit didn’t instantly remark.
The backlash from The Submit’s journalists comes after severe questions had been raised about Lewis, who has been the topic of a number of explosive experiences in latest days scrutinizing his journalistic integrity.
The New York Occasions reported over the weekend that, in his Fleet Avenue days, Lewis assigned an article that was based mostly on stolen telephone information. And The Submit itself reported in a 3,000-word entrance web page expose Sunday {that a} “thief” who used misleading ways to acquire non-public materials had ties with Lewis’ hand-picked incoming prime editor, Robert Winnett.
The tales, which landed like a one-two punch in The Submit’s newsroom, adopted experiences that Lewis tried to suppress tales at The Submit and NPR about his position cleansing up Rupert Murdoch’s UK telephone hacking scandal, when he served as a lieutenant to the right-wing media mogul.
In response to the experiences earlier this month, Lewis initially lashed out, criticizing his personal media reporters and attacking veteran NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, who he known as an “activist, not a journalist.” Lewis later despatched a memo to staffers, hanging a notably completely different tone. However the observe did not quell the rising disapproval throughout the newspaper’s ranks.
Inside The Submit’s newsroom, morale has plunged as staffers specific alarm over Lewis’ conduct and worries over the longer term route of the newspaper beneath his management. Interviews with practically a dozen Submit staffers and others acquainted with the inner dynamics of the newspaper final week revealed a workforce that has grown more and more dismayed by the scenario, with some trying to find work elsewhere.
Sensing the turmoil, Bezos on Tuesday despatched a memo to prime leaders at The Submit, expressing help for sustaining excessive journalistic requirements at his newspaper.
“You will have my full dedication on sustaining the standard, ethics, and requirements all of us consider in,” Bezos wrote.
However the memo did little to quell the rising riot within the newsroom.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, the professor and senior affiliate dean for management research on the Yale College of Administration, instructed “Time TV” on Monday that Bezos ought to dismiss Lewis.
Sonnenfeld, who has suggested US presidents and scores of company leaders, stated that if he had been advising Bezos, he would inform him Lewis has “misplaced legitimacy to steer” and it’s time to “clear the home.”
“It is a tragic meltdown of the conscience of American journalism bringing disgrace to the Katharine Graham, Ben Bradlee, Marty Baron legacy of collaboration, braveness and integrity,” Sonnenfeld stated. “Bezos should recruit an achieved, skilled editor whom journalists admire and belief.”
