Professor Steven Barnett for The Washington Post on potential new Editor for The Post

Professor Steven Barnett, Professor of Communication at the University of Westminster, spoke to The Washington Post on the decision taken last month to appoint Deputy Editor of The Telegraph Robert Winnett as the Post’s new editor. 

That appointment did not come to fruition after concerns were raised in US media that Winnett published stories while at the Sunday Times in the early 2000s based on material obtained illegally by blagger John Ford.

Winnett’s journalistic record came under scrutiny after drafts were obtained of an unpublished book by Ford that describe the behaviour of journalists and editors at the time in accessing private information through deception (“blagging”) and through listening into private phone messages (phone hacking).

On the topic Professor Barnett highlights how senior editorial figures would ask others to bear the brunt of risk-taking during this time. He said: “People like Ford are exploited and very useful, and then, when it all went wrong and the whole system was exposed, senior editorial people like Winnett all shrug and say, ‘I had no idea what was going on, look over at that bloke there,’ who is by then cowering in the corner alone.”

Read the full article on The Washington Post website.