NPR Reporter Says WaPo CEO Offered Him Interview In Exchange For Killing Story

NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik on Thursday said new Washington Post CEO Will Lewis offered to give him an exclusive interview on his future plans for the paper in exchange for killing a story detailing allegations about the executive’s involvement in a British hacking scandal.

In a piece published on the NPR website, Folkenflik alleged Lewis “repeatedly — and heatedly” pushed him to accept the offer, which he said was also confirmed by one of Lewis’ spokespeople.

“At that time, the same spokesperson, who works directly for Lewis from the U.K. and has advised him since his days at the Wall Street Journal, confirmed to me that an explicit offer was on the table: drop the story, get the interview,” Folkenflik wrote.

Folkenflik said he turned down the offer and published his story.

In an email to a reporter at the Post, Lewis blasted Folkenflik, saying he is “an activist, not a journalist.”

“I had an off the record conversation with him before I joined you at The Post and some six months later he has dusted it down, and made up some excuse to make a story of a non-story,” Lewis wrote.

Folkenflik told the Post the off-the-record chat did not cover “his efforts to induce me to kill my story.”

Lewis, who joined Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in 2010, was later appointed to join a committee that would oversee the wider company’s response to a scandal involving their News of the World tabloid, over allegedly hacked the voicemails and emails of celebrities, politicians and royal family members.

Lewis is now accused of approving the deletion of emails even after they had been ordered to retain records by local authorities, according to lawyers for Prince Harry and other plaintiffs in ongoing legal actions against Murdoch’s