Paul Bedard, author of the widely read “Washington Whispers” at U.S. News & World Report, is joining The Washington Examiner on Jan. 30 as a columnist.
Bedard has written the magazine’s premiere political column since 1998 and built a large Internet following that helped shepherd the publication into the digital world.
Examiner Editor Stephen G. Smith called Whispers a “must read” for anyone interested in politics and what’s going on behind the scenes in Washington. He said Bedard would write a similar column for The Examiner that will appear each weekday in the newspaper’s web and print editions.
“As a former colleague of Paul’s at U.S. News, I am especially pleased that he’s coming to The Examiner,” said Smith, who was editor of the magazine from 1998 to 2001. “He has as many sources as anyone in town, and he practices the old-fashioned newspaper virtues of accuracy, fairness, and clarity.”
Bedard said his column will be “a perfect fit” with the paper’s Capitol Hill and White House coverage and its Yeas & Nays political gossip column. Whispers mixes news scoops — like Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis driving a Canadian car instead of a U.S.-made auto as she claimed — and lighter topics, like reporting that the White House keeps a backup turkey before Thanksgiving in case the lead bird keels over before the president can pardon it.
“The Examiner is the most fun and informative and energetic read in D.C.,” Bedard said. “And it’s still growing and I want to be part of that explosion. I got in on the ground level of The Washington Times years ago and was a part of that building process and at U.S. News.”
Prior to U.S. News, Bedard spent 10 years as White House correspondent at the Times. He started out at the Salisbury (Md.) Daily Times covering politics and education and has also worked at Defense Week and States News Service.
Bedard lives in Loudoun County with his wife, Michele, and daughter Maddy.
