The New York Post faces being sued by one of its own reporters who claims it “caught and killed” a critical story about one of Donald Trump’s controversial picks.
One of the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid’s longest-serving journalists claims that the paper’s editor-in-chief personally killed off a story which would have revealed key questions over Trump’s candidate to lead the Drug Enforcement Agency.
Veteran business reporter Josh Kosman told the Daily Beast he had worked for weeks on a tip that Terry Cole, Trump’s DEA nominee, had been involved in missions which resulted in the unnecessary deaths of U.S.-backed operatives overseas.
But eventually it was killed off by the paper’s editor-in-chief, Keith Poole, in an email saying “Nope. Not running this.” Weeks later Trump said Poole should replace Emma Tucker as editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, posting on Truth Social, “It’s an easy move for Rupert, and he’ll love the results.”
Kosman told the Beast he was first told by his boss he should look for a new job and then suspended and placed under investigation after revealing the story-killing to Breaker Media, an industry newsletter written by Lachlan Cartwright, a former Daily Beast journalist—and now is considering suing, alleging he has been retaliated against.
A Post spokesperson said “the allegations of ‘catch and kill’ and retaliation against Josh Kosman are absolutely, categorically untrue. Beyond that, we do not comment on personnel matters.” The Post added that it has actually pivoted more toward investigative and enterprise reporting.
The story started with a tip about Cole to Kosman which was slated to publish on March 22.
When the date passed, Kosman asked Sam Chamberlain, the paper’s political editor, what the status of the story was. Chamberlain had initially told Kosman he “loved” the story but emailed, “There’s no good way to say this, so I’ll just say it: KP spiked the story. I sent him the most recent copy and his response was, ‘Nope. Not running this’ in a way that made clear there was no changing his mind.”
Chamberlain added, “I’m very sorry. I thought we had the story… but sometimes decisions are made above my pay grade.”
Kosman told the Daily Beast he believes Poole spiked the story to help Trump, who has called the Post “my favorite newspaper.” It endorsed him for re-election last year after a complicated relationship with its hometown president, which had included an editorial in 2021 demanding he accept that he lost the election, then pivoting hard behind Florida governor Ron DeSantis, calling him “DeFuture.”
As well as telling Murdoch to give Poole The Wall Street Journal, Trump told a reporter on Saturday: “I like Keith Poole.”
Kosman said he believed the episode was “catch and kill,” a scheme that traditionally involves publishers paying money to subjects to avoid the public disclosure of their stories. Kosman alleged that Poole spiked the story in light of his affinity for Trump.
“If our story had gone out as planned, likely the New York Times, Washington Post, would have worked on their own stories—called the on-record sources, done their own reporting—there’s certainly a strong possibility there would have been a lot of pressure on this nominee,” Kosman said. “By Poole catching and killing this story, he really helped Trump’s nominee.”
CNN eventually ran a similar story on April 29 with the headline “Ex-agents question role of Trump’s DEA pick in violent overseas incidents.” The story, Kosman said, was “similar” but “not as good” as his original report. The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced Cole’s nomination to the full Senate along party lines, 12-10, earlier this month, but the full chamber has not yet voted on his nomination.
Kosman, 58, is now considering a lawsuit against the Post, where he has worked for nearly two decades. “Yes, I’m considering legal action,” he said.
“This would have been year 16 of good—very good reviews,” said Kosman, 58. “I’ve never been put on probation.”
The White House declined to answer questions about how it dealt with Kosman on the record but White House spokesperson Liz Huston said in a statement, “We take great pride in holding reporters accountable who try to peddle fake news.”
Trump has been caught up in a “catch and kill” saga before. Former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified last year during Trump’s criminal trial over payments to porn star Stormy Daniels that he would buy the exclusive rights to stories involving Trump and not publish them. “We didn’t want the story to embarrass Mr. Trump or embarrass or hurt the campaign,” Pecker said under oath.
The post Murdoch Paper Accused of Pro-Trump ‘Catch and Kill’ Scheme appeared first on The Daily Beast.
