'Washington Post' Associate Editor to Serve as ESPN Ombud

By: (AP) ESPN has hired longtime Washington Post sports editor George Solomon as its first ombudsman.

Solomon, whose son produces the ESPN program "Around the Horn," will assume the job on July 1 and will have an 18-month term. His duties will include critiquing the news agency's decision making, their coverage of events and news and the presentation of their studio shows, such as "SportsCenter."

His critiques will appear in a column on ESPN.com that will run at least once a month.

"While we continually scrutinize our efforts, adding someone of George's caliber and reputation will only strengthen our efforts to continually enhance how we serve fans," said Mark Shapiro, ESPN executive vice president, programming and production.

Solomon, now an associate editor with the Washington Post, will continue to write a Sunday sports column for the newspaper. He served as assistant managing editor for sports from June 1975 until June 2003.

In 2003, he received the Red Smith Award for distinguished service in the field of sports journalism from the Associated Press Sports Editors.