The Washington Post on Thursday called President Donald Trump’s tweet criticizing the paper, and it’s reporters, “repugnant” after the post released a story about Attorney General William Barr.
Trump denied the newspapers story, which alleged the president had asked Barr to hold a press conference to say he did not break the law during his phone call with the president of Ukraine. (RELATED: The Washington Post Rips Its Own Employees’ ‘Seriously Flawed’ Report Alleging Racial Pay Gaps At Paper)
“The Amazon Washington Post and three lowlife reporters, Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, and Carol Leonnig, wrote another Fake News story, without any sources (pure fiction), about Bill Barr & myself,” Trump wrote in a Thursday tweet. “We both deny this story, which they knew before they wrote it. A garbage newspaper!”
The Amazon Washington Post and three lowlife reporters, Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, and Carol Leonnig, wrote another Fake News story, without any sources (pure fiction), about Bill Barr & myself. We both deny this story, which they knew before they wrote it. A garbage newspaper!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 7, 2019
In an earlier tweet, the president refers to the paper as “degenerate.”
The Post hit back at the president, by reiterating their support for their reporters, in a statement released by Executive Editor Marty Baron on Twitter.
“The president continues to make false accusations against news organizations and individual journalists. Despite his repugnant attempt to intimidate and harass The Post and its staff, we will continue to do the work that democracy demands of a free and independent press,” Baron said on Thursday.
Re: today’s tweets from @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/ndHxZoorzk
— Kristine Coratti Kelly (@kriscoratti) November 7, 2019
The newspaper was accused yesterday, by their own union, of underpaying non-white employees compared to white employees, but the Post’s vice president of communications denies any wrongdoing, according to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The Post is committed to paying employees fairly for the work they perform, and we believe that we do so, taking into account relevant factors like position, years of experience, and performance,” Kristine Coratti Kelly, vice president of communications at the Washington Post, told the DCNF. “It is regrettable that the Guild published a report on pay that does not appear to accurately account for these and other relevant factors, which have nothing to do with race or gender.”
Median salaries at @washingtonpost:
White men: $117,452
Men of color: $101,575
White women: $99,640
Women of color: $86,511https://t.co/9H1hvpXGIj— Michelle Ye Hee Lee (@myhlee) November 6, 2019
The union wants the paper to “hire an equity, diversity and inclusion chair/consultant and form a diversity committee” by the end of 2020.