Politics reporter quits newspaper owned by Ivanka Trump’s husband after it endorses Donald Trump

Ross Barkan standing in front of New York’s City Hall. (Photo: Najib Aminy/Courtesy of Ross Barkan)

The sole national political reporter at the New York Observer announced he would leave the paper after three years in the wake of the paper’s endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose son-in-law, Jared Kushner, owns the Observer.

The Trump endorsement, published online Tuesday evening, drew substantial criticism and became the second major controversy involving the paper’s relationship with the candidate in recent months.

Ross Barkan, who does not have another job lined up, broke the news in a pair of tweets.

“Personal news: I’m announcing today that my last day at the New York Observer will be April 27th,” Barkan wrote. “I’m grateful for the three years I’ve spent at NYO, and all the experiences I’ve had along the way. Most grateful to our readers.”

In a conversation with Yahoo News shortly after he announced his departure from the paper, Barkan said it had become “increasingly difficult” to navigate the Observer’s Trump connection. Though Barkan was never explicitly told how to cover the election, he said he felt some pressure when he reported on Trump, the GOP presidential primary frontrunner.

“Nothing that I wrote or reported was ever not what I wanted to do. There was never, like, ‘Go write this, you have to write this. … Every piece of reporting I did, I stand by it 100 percent,” Barkan said. “Were there things we couldn’t necessarily cover — or were there unspoken rules?… The policies and directions weren’t always clear. I didn’t always feel I could report to the fullest extent that I could.”

Barkan said he stayed away from certain stories as a result of the Observer’s family ties.

“Perhaps I was self-censoring myself or I felt they wouldn’t be welcomed by people above me,” Barkan said of potentially difficult Trump stories. “But there was never a point where I was directed to do anything.”

Kushner, who purchased the Observer in 2006, is married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka. In early 2013, Kushner tapped Ken Kurson to be the paper’s editor in chief. A family friend of Kushner’s, Kurson had a background in both journalism and politics. Kurson, who was a contributor to Esquire magazine, had been working at a Republican political consulting firm in New Jersey. He also served in the administration of former Republican New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Kurson worked as a consultant and speechwriter for Giuliani, including on the mayor’s unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid.

Barkan, 26, started working at the Observer as an intern in late 2012. He became a full-time employee the following year. The Observer has long covered New York politics, but Barkan was named national political reporter earlier this year and hit the campaign trail for the paper.

(Full disclosure: This reporter worked at the Observer from 2011 to 2013, and as senior politics editor supervised Barkan and worked under Kurson.)

Kurson initially said there would be “no good way” for the Observer to cover Trump’s presidential bid given Kushner’s relationship to the candidate. However, as Trump surged to the front of the Republican primary pack, the paper began covering his campaign, which had become unavoidable and one of the top stories in America. Kurson said the Observer would “play it straight” when covering Trump, and the stories all included a disclosure statement. As the Observer’s sole national political reporter, Barkan wrote much of this Trump coverage.

Last month, it was revealed that Kurson helped Trump craft a speech he delivered before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference in late March. Kushner also helped write the address. Barkan, who wrote an article about the speech, was unaware that his boss had been involved in writing it until after he filed. He described this as “troubling” and the first of a series of “unforeseen incidents” that contributed to his decision to leave the paper.

“It had become increasingly difficult,” Barkan said, adding, “I made my concerns clear.”

Barkan said he spoke to Kurson after the incident and asked to be briefed on any other issues that might come up involving Trump. That did not happen, and Barkan said he was “surprised” when the paper’s Trump endorsement was published on Tuesday. As is typical for endorsements, it was written as an editorial. While the Observer’s editorial pages are written independently of the paper’s news operation, Barkan said he felt that he should have been given a heads-up based on the conversation he had with Kurson following the AIPAC speech. Barkan said this would have allowed him to “steel himself” for the onslaught of negative online attention that came in the wake of the endorsement.

“The Observer has a right to endorse. They can do that. I have no issue with the newspaper endorsing Trump per se. He’s a presidential candidate. If that’s who you want to back, go do it,” Barkan said. “I personally did not know this was happening when it did. I was blindsided by it.”

This was the straw that broke the camel’s back for Barkan, though he said the Observer’s connection to Trump wasn’t the sole factor in his decision to leave the paper.

“That was a factor. I don’t want to say that was the only factor, because that wasn’t it,” said Barkan, adding, “I’d be lying if I said that this last month or so has been easy. It has not been easy given everything that’s happened.”

In an email to Yahoo News, Kurson simply said the paper was “grateful” to Barkan “for his three years.” Barkan also expressed fondness for the Observer.

“I don’t want to say the Observer can’t do national politics — that’s not fair. They may hire someone else. There may be adjustments, and it may work swimmingly,” Barkan said. “I hope it does, because the fate of the Observer is important. … It’s a place I still cherish despite everything. And they may be able to do national politics very well. I think for me it was no longer a place that made sense.”