Does new top editor in Cincinnati bode ill for daily's biz coverage?

Kevin Osborne, the news editor of Cincinnati CityBeat, writes about the ramifications of the hiring of Carolyn Washburn, formerly the editor of the Idaho Statesman, to be the editor of the Cincinnati Enquirer does not result in any confidence for the future of its business coverage.

Osborne writes that during her tenure, “The Statesman was criticized for being too deferential to Micron Technologies, one of the largest employers in Boise, Idaho.

Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) wrote in 2001: ‘The Idaho Statesman has a curious definition of ‘fact checking.’ The business editor of the Gannett-owned daily, Jim Bartimo, resigned when he was told that a story he had worked on about Micron Technologies, the area’s largest employer, had to be sent for pre-publication ‘review’… to Micron Technologies.’

“Previously The Statesman‘s business news practices were examined by The Washington Post‘s Howard Kurtz, in articles from January and February 2000. Kurtz’s article revealed that The Statesman reporter covering the Micron beat was married to a Micron employee.

“When Kurtz asked Washburn about the paper’s Micron coverage and whether it was afraid to be too critical, she replied, ‘It’s not that it has anything to do with their being the biggest employer. What we write can affect a lot of people in this community. It can affect the stock price.'”

Read more here. Washburn was a business reporter and business editor of the Lansing State Journal in Michigan from 1984 to 1987 and a business reporter and business editor at the Times-Union in Rochester, N.Y. from 1987 to 1991.