This afternoon I spoke to the Washington Post‘s Susan Glasser, the paper’s assistant managing editor for national news, about John Solomon’s hiring.
Glasser was unwaveringly positive about Solomon, citing his “great mind, enthusiasm, zeal for an important subject” — money in politics — and calling him “one of the most distinctive assets that the Post has gained in the past few years.”
She declined to discuss criticism of his reporting on incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). She “wasn’t involved in those stories,” she said, and didn’t “have anything to say about them.” She confirmed that concerns over his work on those stories was “not at all” an issue in his hiring, and emphasized that Solomon is an “extremely well-regarded, practiced, thoughtful, responsible, agressive reporter.”
“You guys should be out there reading him closely and carefully, but this is a good thing, an exciting thing for us,” Glasser added.
Glasser said that Solomon will be “a reporter covering money in politics” at the Post and will not be getting his own investigative unit, as stated in an AP internal memo about the hiring. “Heâs going to be a reporter here at the Post, although I imagine a leader of our coverage,” she said.
So there you have it. Don’t worry, Susan, we will be reading him closely.
