Former ambassador and president emeritus of Meridian International Center Walt Cutler with journalist Arnaud de Borchgrave at Cafe Milano. (Rebecca D'Angelo/FTWP)
So that’s the news.
Now to the weirdness of this announcement:
1) The Washington Times put this development not in an editor’s note or some other appeal to readers, but in a regular old news story.
2) The news story carries this headline: “De Borchgrave takes leave from column,” a formulation that would signal nothing amiss to the casual reader.
3) Here are the first two paragraphs of the story:
Arnaud de Borchgrave said Monday night he will take a three-month leave from writing his weekly opinion column for The Washington Times to finish his memoirs.
The decision by Mr. de Borchgrave, a former editor of The Times and a decorated international journalist, came after an examination by two online news sites of some of his work showed similarities with material from other sources, without attribution.
Upshot: De Borchgrave’s in charge here.
4) More such upshot in this passage:
Ed Kelley, the Times’ editor, said Mr. de Borchgrave handled the situation appropriately.
“We wish him the best during his hiatus,” Mr. Kelley said.
De Borchgrave is known as a globe-trotting correspondent of many great feats over his long career. The wording of this story adds to his list of accomplishments.