Report: Morale Tanks At WaPo

When Will Lewis became chief executive and publisher of The Washington Post in January, he was initially welcomed by staffers with cautious optimism — however, he has over the course of the last several days alienated his troops and raised larger questions about his fitness to run one of the nation’s most prestigious news organizations.

At The Post, according to more than a half-dozen staffers who spoke with CNN, morale has fallen off a cliff since Lewis abruptly ousted Executive Editor Sally Buzbee a week ago Sunday. “It’s as bad as I’ve ever seen it, truly,” one staffer said Thursday, noting that The Post has hit “rough patches” before, but that the stormy atmosphere hanging over the Washington outlet is unprecedented.

Will Lewis addressing staff meeting

Lewis’ uncouth dispatching of Buzbee poisoned much of the goodwill he had earned with his employees over the preceding six months. Indeed, the day after he announced Buzbee’s exit, staffers pressed him in a town hall about the circumstances that led to her departure. While staffers who spoke with CNN have praised Matt Murray, the former top editor at The Wall Street Journal who will lead the newsroom through the election, they have raised serious concerns about the appointment of Fleet Street veteran Robert Winnett, who will take the reins after the conclusion of the presidential contest.

But Lewis and his team of spokespeople, would have likely been able to contain the mess, if it were to have remained isolated. Unfortunately for Lewis, it did not. Buzbee’s ouster led to the revelation that weeks beforehand Lewis had pressured her to refrain from publishing a story about his alleged involvement in the U.K. phone hacking scandal. At the time of the scandal, which engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and was revived by a new Prince Harry lawsuit, Lewis was a senior executive at News Corporation, a position that has left an indelible stain on his resume.

Lewis has denied wrongdoing in the hacking scandal. Regardless, the coverup often can be worse than the crime. And so, when The New York Times first reported the news about the pressure Lewis had applied to Buzbee, which CNN has since confirmed, all hell broke loose inside The Post.