Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson took unusual umbrage at David Carr’s column this morning about the conservative bent The Wall Street Journal’s reporting seems to have taken since the paper’s acquisition by Rupert Murdoch. In a statement, he lashed out at the Times in general, basically called the paper jealous, and revealed what is clearly a long-simmering point of contention he has with Times executive editor Bill Keller.
Sayeth Thomson:
The attack follows the extraordinary actions of Mr Bill Keller, the Executive Editor, who, among other things, last year wrote personally and at length to a prize committee casting aspersions on Journal journalists and journalism. Whether it be in the quest for prizes or in the disparagement of competitors, principle is but a bystander at The New York Times.
Interesting! Which prize did Keller try and thwart for the Journal, exactly? Daily Intel’s first call, to Cyndi Brown, who heads the Texas-based committee behind the John Murphy Award for Excellence in Copy Editing, tells us that her office, for one, has received no such correspondence from Keller. The Pulitzer Prize Committee has not yet responded to calls for comment.
Update: Sig Gissler of the Pulitzer Prize Committee tells us, “We do not comment on whether communications have or have not been sent to us.”
Robert Thomson Takes Swing at David Carr, Bill Keller [NYO]
Under Murdoch, Tilting Rightward at The Journal [NYT]
