STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The Washington Post has one of the more famous mottoes in all of journalism - democracy dies in darkness.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Yes, but long before the paper adopted that slogan, it had become one of the nation's great newspapers, famous for its Watergate investigation and others, which is why many people in the media - and, frankly, outside the media - are following this news. The paper's new CEO tried to tamp down coverage of an unflattering story involving him.
INSKEEP: One of his efforts came in a conversation with NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik, who's been covering this story. David, good morning.
DAVID FOLKENFLIK, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: OK, so the CEO here is named Will Lewis. He's trying to restructure The Post at a difficult time for a lot of media - circulation is down - and he's a deeply experienced guy, worked in British newspapers for many years. So what was the story about himself that he didn't want covered?
FOLKENFLIK: Well, Lewis faces accusations back in civil suits in London - brought by Prince Harry, among others - that he was involved years ago in a cover-up, and that's a cover-up of a scandal involving illegal hacking into people's voicemails and emails by Rupert Murdoch's tabloids in their headlong pursuit of stories.
INSKEEP: And then what happened this year, when The Washington Post's staff decided to report on its own CEO?
FOLKENFLIK: So Lewis has previously denied wrongdoing. He's done so again. It's important to note he's not a defendant in these civil suits, and he hasn't been prosecuted for any of this. At the same moment, he's at the core of a lot of these accusations. And he told Sally Buzbee, then the executive editor of The Washington Post, these stories simply weren't newsworthy, and she shouldn't cover it. He accused Buzbee of a lapse in judgment in deciding to let her team go forward, although he didn't prevent it. Within about 3.5 weeks - that is at the beginning of this week on Sunday - Buzbee was forced out. My reporting shows that was part of a larger restructuring that would have diminished her authority over the newsroom, really split it in two. But a lot of staff is concerned that perhaps their coverage of him was part of the reason, as well.
INSKEEP: Oh, OK - wow. Well, when you heard all of this from sources inside The Post, what did you recall from your own past reporting on this same topic - this story about Will Lewis that he didn't want published?
FOLKENFLIK: We addressed this back in December. We really broke a lot of the details of this as new evidence surfaced in court in London detailing the allegations and the heft for it that he was involved in a cover-up. He and I spoke, as he has now acknowledged, off the record, but that off-the-record conversation had to do with the meat of the allegations against him, not about whether or not I should drop the story. And, in fact, he did push me, on a number of occasions, to drop the story, offering me instead an exclusive about his plans for The Post's future.
INSKEEP: So you're saying that in a conversation that wasn't off the record, he made a quid pro quo offer to you - drop your story that I don't like, and I will give you a story, an exclusive interview, that I do like. Is that it?
FOLKENFLIK: To misquote "The Godfather," he gave me an offer I had to refuse.
INSKEEP: OK, and you did refuse this. You went ahead with the story then, and now you've published his effort at a quid pro quo, and Lewis has offered some on-the-record comments about all this. What does he have to say?
FOLKENFLIK: Right. He called me an employee, rather than a journalist. Then he explicitly said I was an activist, rather than a journalist, working for NPR. He also said I dusted down comments that he had made six months ago and had made up some excuse to make a story of a non-story.
INSKEEP: I notice he's not denying any of the facts of your story.
FOLKENFLIK: Well, he certainly doesn't deny pressuring me, and to try to induce me to drop my story in exchange for an exclusive. He does deny having pressured his own former executive editor. But I've got to say, not only have we reported that he did that; The New York Times did; and his own reporters at The Post have done that. And what he's done is kind of launched a broadside attack on values held dear at The Post and elsewhere of the idea of a firewall insulating the news from pressure from those that it covers, including those who run its business side.
INSKEEP: David, thanks so much.
FOLKENFLIK: You bet.
INSKEEP: That's NPR's David Folkenflik.
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