Michael Calderone at The Huffington Post is reporting that Lenny Bernstein, a sports editor at The Washington Post, has been assigned to the environment beat at the paper.
The Columbia Journalism Review and others raised concern earlier this month when Bernstein's predecessor on the beat, Juliet Eilperin, was reassigned to the White House. The move was particularly disturbing because it came just after The New York Times had canceled its Green blog, a signal to many that the Times would devote fewer resources to environmental coverage. (Times officials said that was not the case, and that its environmental coverage would now be found elsewhere in the paper.)
According to his Post bio, Bernstein joined the Post in 2000, worked in Metro and on the National Desk, and now edits the sports desk's coverage of the Washington Redskins and the NFL. It says he "would like to spend his days running and bicycling, but because that doesn’t pay well" he works on the sports desk and coauthors the Post's MisFits column. His LinkedIn profile notes that he worked for the Los Angeles Times for 15 years before joining the Post.
It doesn't seem that Bernstein has any experience covering the environment, so we might expect a bit of a break-in period, while he adjusts his environmental derailleur and shoes. But he does appear to have a broad background in news.
Calderone quotes from a Post memo that says that Bernstein "was one of several reporters and editors who shared the Pulitzer Prize for National reporting for coverage of the 9/11 attacks" and was part of a team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Public Service Award in 2006. As a national editor, the memo says, "Lenny handled an array of beats, including Justice, the Supreme Court, religion, education and social services. After 2001, he focused mainly on terrorism, homeland security and immigration."
The memo says Bernstein will start April 1.
-Paul Raeburn
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