Learning The Tricks

Gotta admit that accusing your critics of being "activists" is a standard US journalist thing, so this Brit important is learning fast.

Washington Post Publisher and CEO William Lewis is drawing scrutiny after press reports described him as attempting to dissuade journalists — including those at The Post — from covering his involvement in a long-running British phone-hacking lawsuit.

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The other press account came from NPR media reporter David Folkenflik, who published a story Thursday describing his experience with Lewis: After being named The Post’s next publisher, but before his first day on the job, Lewis “repeatedly — and heatedly” offered to give Folkenflik an exclusive interview about The Post’s future, in exchange for him dropping a story about new court documents in the phone-hacking case. He refused.

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In his email to The Post, Lewis called Folkenflik — who published a book in 2013 on Rupert Murdoch’s media empire — “an activist, not a journalist.” Lewis added: “I had an off the record conversation with him before I joined you at The Post and some six months later he has dusted it down, and made up some excuse to make a story of a non-story.”

Left out of this account is how after Folkenflik refused the terms, Dylan Byers, the rich person's favorite free PR agent, ran with it.

At that time, Lewis had just been named publisher and CEO by Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, but had not yet started. In several conversations, Lewis repeatedly — and heatedly —offered to give me an exclusive interview about the Post’s future, as long as I dropped the story about the allegations.

At that time, the same spokesperson, who works directly for Lewis from the U.K. and has advised him since his days at the Wall Street Journal, confirmed to me that an explicit offer was on the table: drop the story, get the interview.

NPR published the story nonetheless. On Thursday, the spokesperson declined comment about that offer.

That first interview appears to have gone to Puck’s Dylan Byers. It ran a day after the Post’s piece in May.

dylan byers has a little buzzer on his desk that starts flashing every time a billionaire needs defending online

— Ashley Feinberg (ashleyfeinberg.bsky.social) (@ashleyfeinberg) December 10, 2018

British journalism is a sewer and this guy has no idea why people are criticizing him. This is just how things are normally done!