The Guardian has announced the formation of a new US political enterprise team, with veteran journalist George Zornick appointed as editor and Aram Roston joining as senior reporter. The team will focus on investigations into abuse of power at the federal level and how political decisions affect ordinary Americans.
Zornick, who starts on 18 August, comes from HuffPost where he served as chief national editor, overseeing award-winning coverage of the January 6 insurrection, the pandemic, and Donald Trump’s return to power. He previously worked at the Nation and ThinkProgress. Roston, joining on 25 August, is an investigative reporter who broke the story that ended Jerry Falwell Jr’s presidency at Liberty University while at Reuters. He has also worked for BuzzFeed News, GQ, Newsweek, and the New York Times.
Both journalists expressed commitment to accountability journalism. Zornick said: “At a time when disinformation is rampant, accountability is shrinking, and power is working harder than ever to avoid scrutiny, that’s exactly when journalism has to be at its sharpest.” Roston added: “As the stakes for our democracy rise, our responsibility as journalists remains clear: to pursue facts relentlessly.”
The Guardian’s US editor, Betsy Reed, said: “Investigative reporting has always been at the heart of the Guardian’s mission, but never before has the need for accountability journalism been so acute in our nation’s capital.” The Guardian has more than 100 editorial staff in the US and reaches over 40 million monthly readers.
