Washington Post Editor Marty Baron joined the Code Media conference Tuesday fresh off a triumph, as his paper’s reporting was instrumental in pushing National Security Adviser and friend of Russia Mike Flynn to resign.
However, at the conference at the Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California, Baron said his publication isn’t looking for a fight with the Trump administration — just doing its job.
“We’re not at war with the administration, we’re at work,” he said.
Baron, portrayed in his Boston Globe days by Liev Schreiber in Best Picture winner “Spotlight,” also rejected the president’s portrayal of the press as the opposition party.
“I think we’ve reached a strange point, when just being independent as the press should be is treated as opposition,” he said.
However, unlike rival publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post hasn’t yet explicitly said the president has lied in a story. Baron said the Post has a higher standard for using that word.
“Where he knew what he said was false when he said it,” Baron said. “For the moment, saying what he said is simply not true is appropriate.”
Baron also provided a useful definition of what a reliable source should be, especially at a time when filtering through unreliable voices is more important than ever.
“A source should be someone who has actual, direct knowledge of something, not just someone who has heard something,” he said.
And while the newspaper business is certainly going through a rough patch right now, with news of layoffs coming on a seemingly weekly basis, Baron said the Post is on a solid positive trajectory.
“Our subscriptions are growing at a very rapid rate right now,” Baron said. “That provides the revenue to do our journalism.”