The Washington Post grabs up The Wall Street Journal’s Devlin Barrett, who said good-bye to the Journal yesterday after seven years there as a reporter covering law enforcement and national security. He’ll have a similar beat at the Post, where he’ll cover national security issues and institutions including the FBI and Homeland Security.
Prior to joining the Journal, Barrett had been a reporter at the Associated Press, where his beats included New York’s congressional delegation and later the Justice Department. He got his start at another Post: the New York Post, working his way up from copy boy.
Politico’s Joe Pompeo highlighted the heightened significance of the move, given deputy editor in chief Rebecca Blumenstein’s recent decampment to the New York Times and talk of staff displeasure at the paper’s Trump coverage. “This is another BIG deal,” was what one source told Pompeo, with another writing, “Another HUGE loss for WSJ.”
Barrett starts March 6.
Meanwhile, the Post continues to add to its stable of opinion writers, with former Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta joining as the latest contributing columnist. Podesta will focus on the junction of politics and policy, as well as write about the Trump administration and the Democratic Party’s path forward.
“No one knows more about how Washington works, how the White House operates, and how policy ideas are translated into reality than John Podesta,” said editorial page editor Fred Hiatt in a statement. “His long experience in Congress, inside two Democratic White Houses and on the front lines of numerous presidential campaigns, will offer readers vital insight into Washington and politics at the start of a new era.”
