Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008 | 6:27 p.m.
WASHINGTON - This has been making the rounds, but in case you missed it: the journalist who went after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for his land dealings and boxing tickets has been named Executive Editor of the Washington Times.
John F. Solomon takes over the paper seen in the capital and beyond for helping to “drive the national agenda, particularly among conservatives,” as the Washington Post put it this morning.
A veteran journalist, Solomon built reputation for investigating lawmakers for questionable ethics lapses, but he has also engendered detractors. Solomon broke many of the Reid stories while at the Associated Press before moving to the Post about a year ago, where media writer Howard Kurtz notes his work has “drawn both praise and criticism.”
Reid’s office had created a nearly line-by-line rebuttal to at least one Solomon’s story, and a year ago the senator hired L.A. attorney-to-the-stars Martin Singer to help craft a response to the story about the land deal, the Associated Press reported at the time.
Solomon tells the Post and others there must be a line between the news and commentary sides of the paper. He said he was promised editorial independence.
Will the Democratic Senate majority leader remain in his line of fire?
Lots of links today on the move, but here are a few to get you started:
The Post story kicks it off, Think Progress has a take here.
You also could check out what our partners over at Politico have to say here or see the Washington Times piece.
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