Pulitzer winner calls for Washington Post leadership changes

Pulitzer Prize winner David Maraniss on Wednesday pushed for leadership changes at The Washington Post in the wake of swirling controversy over the newspaper’s publisher and incoming editor.

“I don’t know a single person at the Post who thinks the current situation with the publisher and supposed new editor can stand,” Maraniss wrote on Facebook. “There might be a few, but very very few. Jeff Bezos owns the Post but he is not of and for the Post or he would understand. The issue is one of integrity not resistance to change.”

Washington Post CEO and publisher Will Lewis is under fire following recent reports he ousted former executive editor Sally Buzbee in the wake of a planned reorganization and criticism over scandals involving his actions at previous jobs that his own newsroom reported on.

Maraniss, who has been affiliated with the Post for more than 40 years as an editor and writer, noted the extent of issues at the newspaper in a separate Facebook post Tuesday.

“The Washington Post has been my newspaper for 47 years. I deeply love it and root for and admire all of its reporters, photographers, and editors,” he wrote Tuesday. “I was there in the early 1980s during the trauma of the Janet Cooke scandal. That involved a young writer with no power but a pathological problem with the truth. The Post survived after much hand-wringing and difficult introspection.”

“The troubles of today are more serious by many orders of magnitude. The staff is rightly and fearlessly investigating and questioning the acts of its publisher and supposed next editor whose refusal to answer all questions is inexcusable and unacceptable. The body is rejecting the transfusion,” he added.

A Post spokesperson declined to comment on Maraniss’s remarks.

Scott Higham, an investigative reporter at The Washington Post, five-time Pulitzer finalist and two-time winner, chimed into Maraniss’s post, writing,  “Will Lewis needs to step down for the good of The Post and the public. He has lost the newsroom and will never win it back.”

Responding to the backlash last week, Lewis pushed back on the reports of events leading to Buzbee’s sudden departure.

“I know how this works, I know the right thing to do, and what not to do. I know where the lines are, and I respect them,” he wrote in a statement last week, adding, “The Executive Editor is free to publish when, how, and what they want to. I am fully signed up to that.”

The controversy deepened last weekend, when the Post published an extensive story over ethical concerns regarding Robert Winnett, the newspaper’s incoming editor, who Lewis hired to replace Buzbee after the 2024 election.

Jeff Bezos, the billionaire tech leader who has owned the Post since 2013, came out in support of Lewis and his leadership strategy earlier this week.

“I know you’ve already heard this from Will, but I wanted to also weigh in directly: the journalistic standards and ethics at The Post will not change,” Bezos wrote in a note to top editors, which was obtained by The Hill. “To be sure, it can’t be business as usual at The Post. The world is evolving rapidly, and we do need to change as a business.”

He later said the editors have his “full commitment on maintaining the quality, ethics and standards” for the company.