NEW YORK: The AP has appointed Steven Gutkin to the new post of oil spill editor. Gutkin, Jerusalem bureau chief for the past six years, will be based in Atlanta starting in mid-July to oversee the work of reporters and editors who are covering the cleanup and fallout from the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.
“The Gulf oil spill has been an enormous journalistic challenge,” AP said in a statement. “A sprawling story, much of it occurring literally out of sight beneath the water.”
Gutkin has covered wars, terrorism and political intrigue in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas while based as bureau chief in Caracas, Singapore, Jakarta and Jerusalem. He was replaced as Jerusalem bureau chief by Dan Perry, AP’s Europe editor.