UNDER THE RADAR

WaPo Soft-Pedaled Story About Prince Harry’s Claims Against Its CEO: Report

Editors were reportedly told not to include an article about the royal’s phone hacking lawsuit in any newsletters.

A senior editor at The Washington Post instructed staff not to promote one of the publication’s stories covering Prince Harry’s allegations against Will Lewis, its new CEO, according to a report. The Post published a piece Tuesday about a British court ruling in Harry’s phone-hacking case against Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which meant that he can introduce amendments to the lawsuit, including one alleging that Lewis was involved in a scheme to conceal evidence about the hacking during his time as a News Corp executive. The Post story explicitly mentioned the claims about Lewis and noted his previous denials of any wrongdoing. Hours after the article was published, according to Semafor, the newspaper’s newsletter chief, Elena Zak, sent an email to some staff with the subject line “don’t distribute this story.” “Please do not put this Prince Harry story in any of your newsletters,” she allegedly wrote, without giving further details about why it shouldn’t be promoted. The Post did not respond to Semafor’s requests for comment.