NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik on Thursday said new Washington Post CEO Will Lewis offered to give him an exclusive interview on his future plans for the paper in exchange for killing a story detailing allegations about the executive’s involvement in a British hacking scandal.
In a piece published on the NPR website, Folkenflik alleged Lewis “repeatedly — and heatedly” pushed him to accept the offer, which he said was also confirmed by one of Lewis’ spokespeople.
“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,” Folkenflik wrote.
Folkenflik said he turned down the offer and published his story.
In an email to a reporter at the Post, Lewis blasted Folkenflik, saying he is “an activist, not a journalist.”
“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,” Lewis wrote.
Folkenflik told the Post the off-the-record chat did not cover “his efforts to induce me to kill my story.”
Lewis, who joined Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2010, was later appointed to join a committee that would oversee the wider company’s response to a scandal involving their News of the World tabloid, over allegedly hacked the voicemails and emails of celebrities, politicians and royal family members.
Lewis is now accused of approving the deletion of emails even after they had been ordered to retain records by local authorities, according to lawyers for Prince Harry and other plaintiffs in ongoing legal actions against Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers. A judge in May allowed for Lewis’ name to be added to a list of executives who were allegedly involved in a scheme to conceal evidence. He has denied wrongdoing.
In another interview with The New York Times, Folkenflik said he chose to share his story now because he “thought the audacity of the offer was notable.”
“And given what’s playing out right now at The Post, I thought it was worth noting in public,” he added.
Folkenflik’s account follows other allegations, first reported by The New York Times, that former Post executive editor Sally Buzbee, who left the role abruptly Sunday, had clashed with Lewis over her plans for the newsroom to cover the judge’s May ruling.
Lewis, according to the report, told Buzbee the ruling didn’t merit coverage, but Buzbee insisted she would run the story. The judge allowed Lewis to be named in the lawsuit, and the Post released a story on the development on May 21. Lewis did not interfere with the article’s publication.
Lewis blasted the report as “inaccurate.”
“I know how this works, I know the right thing to do, and what not to do. I know where the lines are, and I respect them,” he wrote in en email to a Post journalist. “The Executive Editor is free to publish when, how, and what they want to. I am fully signed up to that.”
Lewis was announced as the next CEO of the Post in November, and assumed his responsibilities in early January. Lewis has pledged to make changes at the Post to better position it for the future after telling employees in a recent town hall the company shed $70 million in 2023 and has lost much of its audience.
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