WaPo's Departing John Solomon: I Plan To Do "Fair And Balanced" Journalism At Washington Times
January 15, 2008 -- 9:49 AM EST // //
Updated below.
The Washington Post's story today on the departure of the paper's own John Solomon for the greener pastures of The Washington Times is a bit grating, but at least it hits these key points:
Solomon's reporting for The Post, where he worked for one year, has drawn both praise and criticism...The key takeaway here is that The Washington Times is hiring Solomon precisely because he does stories like these and knows how to pass them off as real news. Meanwhile, at his new home Solomon will be able to publish stuff like this without facing any of this sort of nettlesome in-house criticism. Everybody wins!After he co-authored a front-page story on Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards having consulted for a hedge fund, The Post's ombudsman, Deborah Howell, wrote that "the facts are eminently worth reporting, but the tone of the story implied that consulting for a hedge fund . . . is incompatible with caring about the less fortunate."
Solomon also co-authored a report that the previously undisclosed buyers of Edwards's Georgetown house were under federal investigation. Howell wrote that "it seemed like a 'gotcha' without the gotcha," since the former senator said he never spoke to the buyers.
Solomon also unintentionally commits a funny in the piece, describing the style of journalism he plans to do at The Washington Times as "fair and balanced." If you're trying to present yourself as non-ideological, as Solomon does here, that seems like an unfortunate choice of words, to put it charitably.
Update: Think Progress has a good rundown of Solomon's greatest hits.
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