Will Lewis, the chief government of The Washington Publish, repeatedly provided an unique interview to an NPR reporter if the reporter agreed to not write about allegations towards Mr. Lewis in a phone-hacking scandal in Britain, based on an account by that reporter revealed on Thursday.
David Folkenflik, a veteran media reporter for NPR, wrote {that a} spokesperson for Mr. Lewis confirmed the provide in December. That spokesperson declined to remark when approached once more Thursday, based on NPR.
“In a number of conversations, Lewis repeatedly — and heatedly — provided to provide me an unique interview concerning the Publish’s future, so long as I dropped the story concerning the allegations,” Mr. Folkenflik wrote.
A spokeswoman for Mr. Lewis stated that “when he was a personal citizen forward of becoming a member of The Washington Publish, he had off the document conversations with an worker of NPR a few story the worker then revealed.” The spokeswoman stated any interview requests with Mr. Lewis after he joined The Publish have been “processed by means of the traditional company communication channels.”
In an interview on Thursday, Mr. Folkenflik stated he didn’t violate an off-the-record settlement with Mr. Lewis to report Thursday’s article. He additionally stated that he determined to reveal the dialog with Mr. Lewis and his spokesperson now in mild of current turmoil at The Washington Publish, together with the abrupt resignation of its government editor on Sunday.
“I believed the audacity of the provide was notable,” Mr. Folkenflik stated. “And given what’s enjoying out proper now at The Publish, I believed it was value noting in public.”
On Sunday, Mr. Lewis introduced that Sally Buzbee had resigned as government editor and that Matt Murray, a former high editor at The Wall Road Journal, could be her short-term alternative. After the presidential election, Robert Winnett, a British editor, will oversee the core information operation and Mr. Murray will handle a brand new division targeted on social media and repair journalism.
Mr. Lewis, who was named chief government of The Publish late final 12 months, is accused in court docket filings of serving to to cowl up unlawful telephone hacking at British publications owned by Rupert Murdoch greater than a decade in the past. In Could, in a case introduced by Prince Harry and others, a choose dominated that the plaintiffs may add Mr. Lewis’s identify to a listing of executives they argued have been concerned in a plan to hide proof of hacking on the newspapers.
Mr. Lewis has strongly denied any wrongdoing in that case. Although he’s named within the lawsuit, he isn’t a defendant.
Mr. Folkenflik, who has lengthy chronicled the Murdoch media empire, first reported on the accusations towards Mr. Lewis in December 2023, after Mr. Lewis had been named as the subsequent chief government of The Publish, and since then has lined developments within the court docket case.
The New York Occasions reported on Wednesday that Mr. Lewis clashed with Ms. Buzbee over the newspaper’s protection of the phone-hacking scandal within the weeks main as much as her departure.
Ms. Buzbee knowledgeable Mr. Lewis in mid-Could that the newsroom deliberate to cowl the approaching ruling from the choose. Mr. Lewis advised Ms. Buzbee the case involving him didn’t benefit protection, based on two individuals with data of the discussions.
When Ms. Buzbee stated The Publish would publish an article anyway, he stated her determination represented a lapse in judgment. The interplay rattled Ms. Buzbee, however the article was revealed and Mr. Lewis didn’t intervene with its publication.
A spokeswoman for The Publish declined to touch upon The Occasions article revealed on Wednesday. On Thursday, a spokeswoman for Mr. Lewis stated The Occasions’s “account of a gathering he had with the then-executive editor is inaccurate.”
Ms. Buzbee resigned on Sunday. The interplay over the court docket ruling was not the first cause for her resignation. Ms. Buzbee, who was the primary feminine government editor at The Publish and led the newsroom to 6 Pulitzers throughout her three-year tenure, had already been mulling her future due to a plan by Mr. Lewis to reorganize the newsroom that might have decreased her position.
