One of America’s leading newspaper editors has left to join a new criminal justice reporting organization.
The former New York Times executive editor, Bill Keller, 65, leaves the newspaper to head up the Marshall Project.
“Bill has made so many contributions to the Times over his 30 years here, it’s difficult to quantify them,” said Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Times publisher and chief executive of its parent company.
Former Wall Street Journal reporter Neil Barsky created the Marshall Project, the Washington Post reported. “The project is one of a number of digital-only news organizations that have formed in recent years outside of traditional media companies,” the Post reported.
The Post said Keller had been working at the Times as a columnist since he stepped down as executive editor.
“The Times won 18 Pulitzer Prizes during Keller’s eight-year tenure,” the Post reported.
According to the Post, in the 1990s Keller reported on South Africa’s “apartheid racial laws” as they began to crumble and Nelson Mandela became president.
While Keller was an editor for the Times, it published “excerpts of sensitive U.S. military and diplomatic files.” These documents were obtained from WikiLeaks, according to the Post.
In 2005 the Times reported on the George W. Bush administration’s use of “warrantless wiretapping” of those suspected of being terrorists, the Post said.
Keller was the Times editor-in-chief from 2003 to 2011. He became executive editor following the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
