There may be a new wrinkle to the staff shakeup at the Washington Times that we reported earlier: the announcement of the promotion of Jonathan Slevin to the posts of acting publisher and president of the Washington Times comes just one day after the paper admitted that Slevin himself selected the person who wrote the paper's glowing book review of a book he coauthored, in violation of newspaper policy.
The book review is a year old -- though the clarification just ran in the Sunday newspaper. And executive editor John Solomon -- who may be leaving the newspaper along with three other top executives -- hasn't been seen at the newspaper since.
It's not clear that any fallout from this book review had anything to do with the staff shakeup. But the timing does seem a little coincidental.
Solomon declined to comment when asked about this development by TPM. Slevin hasn't returned calls seeking comment.
Slevin, formerly a vice president at the paper, is the new acting president and publisher at the Times. His book, "Clash of the Gods," received a positively glowing review a year ago in the Times from Michael Scheuer, a former CIA official and author of "Marching Toward Hell: America and Islam After Iraq."
From the review:
"Clash of the Gods" should be read by all members of the next presidential administration. It truthfully details the hell for which America is bound because its leaders ignored George Washington's above-noted advice and followed a politically expedient road that has put Americans and their economy in the thrall of several foreign countries and a flamboyantly traitorous domestic fifth column, each ready to manipulate and undermine the United States if it suits their interests.
Yesterday, the Times ran a clarification saying that the reviewer was recommended by the book's authors -- "a deviation from the Washington Times' normal practice."
Slevin addressed the newsroom this morning, essentially repeating what management had laid out in weekend press releases. He took no questions, leaving several staffers frustrated, according to multiple newsroom sources.
Late Update: This post has been revised since it was first published.
Late Late Update: Over at the Politico, Michael Calderone talks to Scheuer, who says the invitation to write the review "came out of the blue."

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midnight rambler
November 9, 2009 1:38 PM
Actually, the review was from November 2008. And it doesn't seem to have helped the book much: at Amazon it's at 1.5 millionth in the sales ranking, with only five reviews (all sycophantic five star reviews from May 2008, a sure sign of stacking), and it's out of stock to boot.
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tweakyd
November 9, 2009 1:42 PM
seems like the right man for the job
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macsurf
November 9, 2009 1:53 PM
Little wonder this happened at the Washington Times. the paper, after all is owned by the Reverend Moon and the Unification Church by and large.
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Nandemosan
November 9, 2009 2:59 PM
Isn't this whole thing a bit of a tempest in a teapot? I mean, who cares? It's not like the Washington Times is a real newspaper.
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tosh
November 9, 2009 3:49 PM
I think we've found the latest TPM Fetish: The Washington Times.
Much like other fetishes, it's perfectly okay what consenting adults want to do, but I'd just as soon see you keep it in the TPM Bedroom rather than tosing it up publically.
John
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commie atheist
November 9, 2009 4:11 PM in reply to tosh
I have no problem with it. It's important for people to be reminded constantly that so-called journalistic enterprises like the Washington Times and Fox News are actually propaganda machines. Maybe someday they will actually be treated as such by the rest of the media.
As far as I am concerned TPM is doing yeoman's work here.
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Nandemosan
November 9, 2009 5:15 PM in reply to commie atheist
What you say is true. But there can't be all that many people outside of DC proper who read the Times, are there? I think it's fairly common knowledge that it's the Moonie paper and nothing but a right wing rag (then again, so is the WaPo anymore).
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commie atheist
November 9, 2009 8:24 PM in reply to Nandemosan
I see frequent cites to the Washington Times in the rest of the media, which treats them as mainstream, so whether it's common knowledge or not, they still have influence.
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quickerevolver
November 9, 2009 6:06 PM
Hell, if this were the financial industry it would be par for the course!
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