Good faith journalism has been experiencing a hostile takeover, and it’s speeding up.
Indeed. On January 2, 2024, William Smith takes over as CEO at The Washington Post. If you're not familiar with the name, he is the Murdoch flunky involved in the phone hacking scandal at News of the World/News UK, lied to the Leveson Inquiry, is said to have deleted millions of emails that could have been evidence, drove the Wall Street Journal from conservative to full on hard right, and is now taking over at WaPo come the new year.
Oh, and WaPo has hailed his coming with the layoff of over 200 longterm staff, probably because WaPo has always had some damn fine journalists there and new management does not want them in the way when WaPo turns hard right too. An excerpt from NPR:
The man picked to lead the Post — a paper with the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" — stands accused of helping to lead a massive cover-up of criminal activity when he was acting outside public view.
In lawsuits against News Corp.'s British newspapers, lawyers for Prince Harry and movie star Hugh Grant depict Lewis as a leader of a frenzied conspiracy to kneecap public officials hostile to a multibillion-dollar business deal and to delete millions of potentially damning emails. In addition, they allege, Lewis sought to shield the CEO of News Corp.'s British arm, News UK, from scrutiny and to conceal the extent of wrongdoing at News of the World's more profitable sister tabloid, The Sun.
In sum, the Duke of Sussex and Grant argue that Lewis was a linchpin of efforts to limit the fallout during a key period between late 2010 and 2012. This spring, the lead trial lawyer for Grant and Prince Harry read from a timeline of the alleged cover-up in open court. He argued that News UK had acted to conceal the actions by The Sun for years, citing specific emails, memos and other documents. The two plaintiffs also allege that Lewis, among other News UK officials, misled police and that The Sun continued to hack people even as the company was being investigated.
ChunkMcHorkle @ ChunkMcHorkle @lemmy.world Posts 11Comments 1,152Joined 2 yr. ago
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