Washington Post owner and mega billionaire dilettante Jeff Bezos has a growing and serious problem on his hands. His hiring of British tabloid / former Murdock employee Will Lewis in November 2023 set the stage for a virtual rebellion of the Pulitzer Prize-winning news staff following the resignation of executive editor Sally Buzbee earlier this month. CNN's media reporter Oliver Darcy has the story of Bezos' dilemma:
"The Washington Post owner and Amazon billionaire can continue to stand by Will Lewis, the controversy plagued Fleet Street veteran he tapped as publisher and chief executive of the iconic national broadsheet. Or he can side with his Pulitzer Prize-winning newsroom, which is repudiating their new leader in clear and unmistakable terms.
But based on conversations with CNN on Monday with nearly a dozen staffers and others familiar with the internal dynamics of The Post, it appears increasingly unlikely that Bezos can have it both ways. Lewis, who continues to face heavy scrutiny over a series of troubling decisions both past and present, has unquestionably lost the room, alienating staffers and creating an untenable position in which it is difficult to see him effectively leading the respected army of reporters under his command.
There may have been a moment in which the former Rupert Murdoch lieutenant could have turned the tide and quelled the uproar within The Post. That fury first saw life shortly after his decision to oust top editor Sally Buzbee. In the wake of her sudden exit, it was revealed that he tried to suppress stories at The Post and NPR about his role cleaning up the U.K. phone hacking scandal for Murdoch (which he denies wrongdoing in). (our emphasis)
To make matters even worse, Lewis has decided to hire another product of Fleet Street's sketchy journalistic ethics world Robert Winnett, who is accused of using stolen private records provided to him by a thief as reported by the Washington Post itself. Not a good omen that the paper you're slated to edit is doing an exposé on you.
Whether Bezos will try to ride it out and potentially suffer a loss of many in his newsroom remains to be seen, but his failure to perform due diligence in his selection process in the first place doesn't bode well for the Post's news staff.
