Marty Baron

And the single most powerful person in the world is the president of the United States.

And so it's not a matter of using a political calculus in your news coverage.

It's a matter of saying, are we fulfilling our responsibilities to unearth the facts that the public needs and deserves to know?

Well, that may be right.

I mean, you need to ask him about it.

Maybe he'll agree to come on your program.

We'll see.

Sure, and I was about to mention CBS, and that's what concerns me about what's happening at CBS is that, you know, Barry Weiss has talked about, well, we want to get the people who are center-right and the people who are center-left and all that sort of thing.

And I don't believe you should use a political calculus in running a news organization of this consequence and this size and this kind of history, whether it's the Washington Post or CBS.

I think the job is to be an ally of the facts and to be an ally of the truth.

And, you know, that's the mission that exists, whether the administration happens to be Democratic or Republican.

And that's the role that the Post has historically played.

I know that the critics on the right say that's not the case, but the facts prove otherwise.

I don't believe in using a political calculus like that.

I believe saying, why do we have a free press in this country?

It's to keep watch on our government, whoever happens to be in government, and tell the public what it needs to know about how they're governing.

And not, I want to appeal to this segment of the political audience.

I want to appeal to that segment of the political audience.

And to keep in mind some sort of political equation while you're doing that.

I never did that.