From a New York Times story by Katie Robertson headlined “New York Post to Staff: Stay Away From CNN, MSNBC, New York Times and Washington Post”:
CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times are among the news organizations that President Trump has falsely labeled “fake news.” And now articles based on reporting from the four outlets are no longer welcome at Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, according to three journalists who work there.
High-level editors at The New York Post instructed staff members this week not to use reporting from CNN, MSNBC, The Times and The Washington Post as the sole basis for any Post article. . . .
It is common practice at The New York Post and its website, nypost.com, to publish articles based entirely on other news outlets’ reporting, without independent confirmation by a Post journalist. The Post is not alone in following this widespread practice, and many news sites have had success by repackaging material from other news organizations. The directive at the Murdoch tabloid was unusual in that it deemed material from certain outlets off limits. . . .
Why did The Post single out these four outlets and not, say, Variety or CBS News? The three journalists said no explanation had been given, but they added that the reason did not have to be detailed. CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post and The Times are seen as liberal within the Murdoch empire, home to Fox News. . . .
That identity has gone through whiplash changes in recent months. During most of the 2020 election, under the guidance of the senior adviser Col Allan, a former editor in chief of The Post who was having a newsroom comeback after roughly 40 years at Murdoch papers, the paper went all in for Mr. Trump and sometimes belittled his rivals.
In the final days of the campaign, when Mr. Trump seemed headed for defeat, the tabloid’s tone shifted. A Post article published shortly before Election Day reported that the president was making the “unfounded claim that political foes were trying to steal the election.” Mr. Allan, who was once seen wearing a Make America Great Again cap in the newsroom, announced that he would retire. . . .
As the president continued to push his false claim that the election had been rigged, and his fervent fans backed him with cries of “Stop the steal,” The Post seemed to make a sharp break, publishing a Dec. 27 front-page editorial headlined “Stop the Insanity.” The editorial blasted Mr. Trump over his refusal to accept the election outcome and told him to “end this dark charade.”. . .
The Post is short-staffed, the three journalists said. Some reporters write five or more articles a day. That is partly what makes them turn to the work of other outlets.
Mr. Allan will call it a career in March, and The Post and its website will have a new top editor: Keith Poole, a British journalist well versed in the ways of Fleet Street journalism. Mr. Poole was a digital editor at The Daily Mail, a site known for its endless-scroll stories of celebrity coffee runs, before he joined the Murdoch empire as the digital editor of the London tabloid The Sun in 2016.
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Katie Robertson is a media reporter. She previously worked as an editor and reporter at Bloomberg and News Corporation Australia
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