Shaun King to fill newly created 'senior justice writer' position at New York Daily News

Brett T. | 12:15 AM on October 04, 2015

It wouldn’t have occurred to us to put scare-quotes around “talent” when describing Shaun King, but it looks like the justice columnist of the Daily Kos is making a significant move up to the New York Daily News, where he will serve as … senior justice writer. King also serves (with DeRay Mckesson) on the board of Justice Together, a group dedicated to ending police brutality in the United States.

CNN Money reports:

Executive Editor Jim Rich said in a staff memo Friday that King will join the tabloid as senior justice writer, a newly created role.

The hiring of King along with several others comes at a turbulent time for the paper in which its newsroom endured widespread layoffs of veteran reporters and editors.

“Shaun’s writing on social inequality, police brutality and race relations in America has been some of the best work done in the country,” Rich said in the memo. “His passion and attention to detail on topics that are of critical importance to our readers — both online and in print — make him a perfect fit for the Daily News.”

King, who is based in Atlanta, will begin writing for the Daily News on October 15.

We’d been agonizing over letting our subscription to the Daily News slide, but King’s recent tweet-a-thon gives us hope that he’ll provide a fresh new liberal perspective on a wide range of subjects, from police brutality to racism to police brutality to abortion to racism to gun control to police brutality, with a side order of economic inequality and racism.