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New York Times Washington bureau chief Richard Stevenson sent out the following on Wednesday:
In little more than a week, we have seen in vivid ways the determination of the new administration to upend policy and reshape the government. We are deeply engaged in explaining the extensive reach of the changes underway and how they will extend into the lives of Americans. We are tracking how the changes would benefit special interests and even the president himself.
Covering this remarkable period requires both more resources and fresh approaches. That’s why we are creating a new team in the Washington bureau. Its mission is to document how President Trump, his movement and his allies use their power to redirect the government through policy changes, spending cuts, deregulation, reshaping of the work force and the picking of winners and losers. It will aim to spotlight the influence of special interests and ideological advocates, and seek to expose potential abuses of power and decisions made inside the government that run counter to the public interest.
But this team will also explore how the federal bureaucracy may be in need of change and where the government may be failing Americans. As changes take hold, this new team will chronicle the ultimate impacts, documenting through creative, high-impact storytelling how they affect people’s lives from the living room to the classroom to the workplace and beyond.
Running this team is a big job and we’ve found a great leader to take it on. Peter Wallsten, currently the investigations editor of The Washington Post, is joining us in the new role of accountability and enterprise editor.
Peter and his newly constituted team (more on that later) will work alongside — and sometimes in partnership with — Jenn Forsyth’s investigations team, which has been producing a steady stream of revelatory journalism and will continue its stellar reporting on Trump conflicts of interest, other key Washington figures, the intersection of power, influence and money and much more.
Peter is an exceptional editor known for propelling deep reporting and conceiving of new and ambitious ways of telling stories. For the last year, he has led The Post’s investigations unit, overseeing teams that produce long-term projects, quick-turn accountability stories and immersive narratives. He has led multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning lines of coverage over more than a decade as an editor, including, most recently, the American Icon series examining the rise of the AR-15 and reporting on the effects of the fall of Roe v. Wade. His past roles include senior national investigations editor, senior politics editor and, in 2013, founding editor of The Post’s political investigations team.
Peter was previously a reporter at The Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times. A native of Chapel Hill, N.C., he graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was editor of The Daily Tar Heel.
As someone who has shared his experience with Stargardt disease, a degenerative retinal condition that has taken much of his eyesight, Peter has been a source of advice and support to low-vision and blind colleagues within and beyond journalism.
He starts Feb. 18. Please join us in welcoming him.