Inside The Never-Ending Washington Post Drama

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WAR AT WAPO

In this week’s edition of Confider, we look into the weekend-long drama that engulfed The Washington Post. First, we report how the “old guard” are “irate” and have voiced concerns about star tech reporter Taylor Lorenz’s latest report that needed to be updated no less than three times (including two editor’s notes). However, one of the cock-ups that upset these staffers may not have been entirely Lorenz’s fault, Confider has learned. Elsewhere within WaPo, we report how star politics reporter Dave Weigel was suspended for a month after retweeting a sexist post that received a very public call-out from his colleague Felicia Sonmez, who then proceeded to rip WaPo management and kick off several days of beefing with other co-workers, including Jose A. Del Real, who accused her of “repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague.” The ordeal resulted in exec editor Sally Buzbee issuing a vague memo pleading with staffers to play nice. Read the full Confider report here.

THIS COULD’VE BEEN AN EMAIL

Gannett employees were angry last week after CEO Mike Reed decided that Wednesday—amid a horrendous news cycle of deadly mass shootings—would be an opportune time to call a staff meeting with just a few hours heads-up. The last time Gannett announced a meeting on such short notice, Arizona Republic reporter and union chair Rebekah Sanders told Confider, was when it furloughed hundreds of staffers at the start of the COVID pandemic. As the largest U.S. newspaper chain, Gannett has made drastic cuts over the past few years (including recently stripping the editorial/cartoon pages from its print papers), contributing to a local news crisis—and so staffers assumed more bad news was forthcoming when Reed called for a sudden all-hands. But the meeting turned out to be mostly unremarkable. “It’s clear that we've laid a solid foundation and we are ready to shift to the next phase of our journey,” Reed said on the call before announcing the company’s plans to split into two business units. “The meeting could have been an email and it would’ve saved everyone a hell of a lot of stress,” said Sanders, whose publication is currently battling Gannett brass over a lack of wage increases. “Why would we think that a last-minute meeting would have any good news? And it’s not even fucking good news.” Gannett did not respond to a request for comment.

CNN’S PIVOT TO NEWS

Newly installed CNN boss Chris Licht generated positive industry headlines last week for a splashy company-wide memo announcing a new “Guns in America” beat and that the overused “Breaking News” banner will be deployed less frequently on-air. While the missive likely pleased the likes of Warner Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Discovery board member John Malone, several staffers, including some who dearly miss Jeff Zucker and his bare-knuckle tactics, were skeptical, branding it a PR stunt. “I am excited to announce the creation of a new beat—Guns in America,” Licht wrote. “In the wake of the mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, the role of guns—who buys & sells them, who makes them, and who regulates them are central to understanding all sides of this complex and divisive issue.” But multiple CNN staffers pointed out to Confider that the massive outlet already has reporters who currently focus on this beat, including the network’s policing team. A CNN spokesperson wrote: “Our reporters have done an exceptional job covering gun violence, which is why our editorial team supports this initiative. We will expand our coverage and resource a dedicated unit, just as we did with ‘Race & Equality’ and ‘Climate.’ Calling such an important journalistic effort ‘a PR stunt’ is uninformed and quite frankly, disappointing.”

BILL OH NO

It has been almost a year since Bill O’Reilly took his sexual harassment accuser Andrea Mackris to court to obtain a temporary restraining order after the former Fox News producer did an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, defying her NDA (which was attached to an infamous $9 million settlement) and breaking a decades-long silence on what the disgraced cable host allegedly did to her. The situation is highly unusual and certainly a bit eyebrow-raising because a hearing on her temporary order has yet to be scheduled—and no court docket suggests there will be one any time soon. While Mackris remains gagged under order, however, O’Reilly has been able to file an arbitration suit against her over violating the NDA—an attempt to yet again “silence and intimidate” Mackris, as her lawyer told Confider. That case has already received hearing dates and a discovery in progress. According to court documents reviewed by Confider, Mackris’ lawyer Michael J. Willemin has filed two letters to a New York Supreme Court judge in Nassau County—one dated in December 2021 and the other this past April—demanding a timely hearing and lamenting how long this has dragged on.

Tips? We're all ears: confider@thedailybeast.com

IN PLAIN SIGHT

CNN anchor Don Lemon at Poppy nightclub in Los Angeles for Pride Eve, an event to kick off Pride Month and raise money for orgs like GLAAD and the Trevor Project in response to a wave of anti-LGBTQ legislation… Sex and the City creator Candace Bushnell and friends; Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life star Julia Haart; and Global Daily Mail CEO Rich Caccappolo with the Mail’s U.S. managing director Sean Walsh and Taboola founder Adam Singolda all having dinner at three separate tables from each other Tuesday night at Zero Bond, a late-night hot spot and favorite of NYC Mayor Eric Adams.

MORE FROM THE BEAST’S MEDIA DESK

—We regret to inform you that Milo Yiannoupoulos has found a new grift: Capitol Hill intern. After years of clawing his way back into far-right media—including declaring himself an “ex-gay”—the former Breitbart editor is now a lowly intern for similarly unhinged Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. A match made in hell. Read the full story here.

—Guns don’t kill people, stoners do, according to Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who spent last week sniffing out ways to blame legalized weed for mass shootings. “What is she on?!” asked the ladies of The View in response.

RECENT READS

—The year is 2022 and The Atlantic has published a 10,000-word profile of this obscure right-wing operator named Steve Bannon, who definitely hasn’t already been covered hundreds of times and definitely hasn’t eagerly made himself available to the media for nearly a decade.

—After last week’s conclusion to the ugly Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard defamation trial, WaPo media columnist Erik Wemple called out his own newspaper for its handling of the 2018 op-ed that kicked off the entire affair. “The Post was taking a shortcut to this controversy, forgoing the journalistic effort required to piece together a bona fide #MeToo story,” he wrote of the column, which was penned by the ACLU in consultation with Heard.

—British journalist Dom Phillips has gone missing deep in the Amazon, The Guardian reported on Monday. Phillips has written extensively about Brazil (including for The Daily Beast) and prior to his latest expedition, his traveling companion—an official overseeing the protection of Indigenous lands—had been threatened by miners and loggers looking to invade, according to a statement from the indigenous group Univaja.

WHAT ARE WE OUTRAGED ABOUT NOW?

It was not too surprising that MAGA world would rally to the defense of former Trump aide Peter Navarro following his federal indictment for defying the Jan. 6 committee. What was less predictable, however, is that conservatives would specifically complain that Navarro’s arrest meant Republicans can’t lie with impunity. “If you’re a Republican, you can’t even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they’re coming after you,” MAGA sycophant and lawmaker Louie Gohmert actually told Newsmax on Friday. Other right-wing pundits and Trump allies, meanwhile, grumbled that the feds pulled “senior citizen” Navarro off a plane and placed him in cuffs during his arrest, something the #BlueLivesMatter crowd felt was a bridge too far. “Did the police put Nancy Pelosi’s drunkard husband in shackles and leg irons before [he] was arrested,” groused ex-Fox News pundit and radio host Todd Starnes. Fellow former Fox star Mike Huckabee further exclaimed: “The heavy-handed tactics of DOJ are disgusting!”

Confider will be back next week with more saucy scooplets. In the meantime, subscribe here and send us questions, complaints and tips and subscribe here.

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