The Washington Put up’s in-house media critic sharply criticized the paper’s new coverage to keep away from protecting itself because the newsroom continues to face turmoil.
Erik Wemple, The Put up’s resident information trade guru, was flooded with questions from readers throughout Monday’s live chat session in regards to the ongoing drama plaguing the “Democracy Dies in Darkness” paper, together with the current resignation of Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Ann Telnaes after her bosses rejected her illustration depicting billionaire Put up proprietor Jeff Bezos groveling to President-elect Donald Trump.
Wemple was requested straight why The Put up hadn’t lined Telnaes’ exit from the paper.
“The Put up has an extended historical past of warts-and-all protection of its inside issues. However there was nothing from the newsrooms media desk about this matter — simply an AP story that we posted to our web site,” Wemple responded. “I requested government editor Matt Murray in regards to the newspaper’s evolving method to its personal office, and that is the response I acquired: ‘I did set a coverage that broadly we should always not cowl ourselves. I’ve all the time felt that there are too many inherent conflicts of curiosity for organizations in that. Sometimes it’s merited in fact, however it’s conflict-ridden. Most information orgs have the identical or comparable insurance policies in fact. I set this weeks in the past, so there may be nothing about it particularly tied to the cartoon.’”
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Washington Put up cartoonist Ann Telnaes resigned after the paper refused to publish an illustration mocking its billionaire proprietor Jeff Bezos. (Screenshot/CNN/AnnTelnaes)
The media critic personally rejected the coverage.
“I could not probably dissent extra strongly from that coverage,” Wemple reacted. “The Put up’s willingness over time to cowl its slip-ups and scandals has helped to set it aside from the various information organizations that refuse to carry themselves to the identical guidelines to which they maintain politicians, CEOs, skilled athletes, and so forth. And it is one thing, I imagine, that subscribers have appreciated.”
“After the blowup over The Put up’s presidential endorsement coverage in October, for instance, I heard issues from media chatters about this very dynamic: How would they find out about issues that go down within the hallways, or Zoomways, because the case could also be? As for Murray’s declare that there is a battle of curiosity, properly, in fact there is a battle of curiosity! One so huge that it would not even must be declared. However for many years, Put up journalists have managed to beat these conflicts, do tales about their very own colleagues and simply take care of the awkwardness that invariably arises within the hallways/Zoomways. It is clear from this chat that readers have appreciated all that work,” Wemple added.
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Washington Put up government editor Matt Murray stated he carried out a brand new “coverage” that the paper doesn’t cowl itself. (Robert Miller/The Washington Put up through Getty Photos)
A spokesperson for The Washington Put up instructed Fox News Digital that Murray’s feedback converse for themselves and didn’t remark additional.
Wemple, a media opinion author who works individually from his reporter colleagues in The Put up newsroom, hasn’t shied away from calling out his own employer.
He has even finished his personal reporting about The Put up previously. In 2022, Wemple reported on the behind-the-scenes drama that unfolded following an faulty piece penned by Taylor Lorenz (she left The Put up in 2024).
Washington Put up media critic Erik Wemple slammed the brand new coverage by high editor Matt Murray saying the paper should not cowl itself. (Screenshot/Washington Put up)
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Murray was tapped as performing government editor final 12 months by then-incoming Put up writer Will Lewis. A report just lately indicated that Murray will assume the role on a permanent basis after an exhaustive and unsuccessful seek for one other candidate.
Over the previous 12 months, The Washington Put up has been on the middle of media controversy from newsroom tensions between Lewis and his workers, major financial losses, outrage over Bezos’ choice to quash the paper’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris, to the unprecedented exodus of high expertise who’ve fled the paper in current weeks.
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