Philip Bennett (Washington Post)

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Philip Bennett, an American journalist, was named managing editor of the Washington Post in 2004. [1] He was previously assistant managing editor for foreign news at the Post and a journalist at the Boston Globe.

A native of the San Francisco area, Bennett is a Harvard graduate who describes his outlook this way: "I love newspapers and the people who make them." [2] He has been described by other journalists as “a low-key man with a studious air.” [3]

Bennet’s career began when he traveled to Peru "on a lark" in 1982 and became a stringer for the Post, two years later he joined the Boston Globe as a local reporter. He met his wife, Monica Klien-Samanez, now a professor of Latin American literature at Georgetown University, in Peru. [4]

In a 2008 speech at the University of California at Irvine, Bennett said that “At the Post I want more Republican readers and I want more Republican journalists,” and called on news organizations to hire more Muslim journalists so that Americans could be taught to understand “the basic tenets of Islam.” [5] Bennett believes that poor translations of words like "jihad," "madrasa" and "hijab" are a big source of the public's misunderstanding of Islam. [6] He said [7] that the Washington Post has still not decided whether to add the term “Islamist” to its stylebook. The speech was sponsored by Southern California in Focus, a group affiliated with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, America’s leading Islamist organization. [8]

Daniel Pipes, a leading scholar of the Muslim politics agreed that “Someone has a problem understanding Islam, but it's Philip Bennett, not his readers.” [9]

Bennett was both praised for advocating the hiring of more Muslim journalists, [10] and criticized for advocating “hiring decisions (that) amount to ethnic and religious bean-counting.” [11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Post Names Philip Bennett as New Managing Editor (washingtonpost.com)
  2. ^ Post Names Philip Bennett as New Managing Editor (washingtonpost.com)
  3. ^ Post Names Philip Bennett as New Managing Editor (washingtonpost.com)
  4. ^ Post Names Philip Bennett as New Managing Editor (washingtonpost.com)
  5. ^ Daily Pilot - Serving Newport Beach & Costa Mesa, California
  6. ^ Daily Pilot - Serving Newport Beach & Costa Mesa, California
  7. ^ Daily Pilot - Serving Newport Beach & Costa Mesa, California
  8. ^ Is the Solution to Hire More Muslim Journalists? - Daniel Pipes Blog
  9. ^ Is the Solution to Hire More Muslim Journalists? - Daniel Pipes Blog
  10. ^ “Muslim journalists, please,” The Brunei Times, March 7, 2008, http://www.bt.com.bn/en/friday_special/2008/03/07/muslim_journalists_please
  11. ^ Michelle Malkin » Pop quiz: When is it okay to target Muslims?