Globe loses a political editor

The Boston Globe’s deputy national political editor, Foon Rhee, is leaving the paper this Friday to take a job at the Sacramento Bee, according to a copy of an internal e-mail obtained by Media Nation. The e-mail, from Washington bureau chief Chris Rowland, is as follows:

Foon Rhee, the Globe’s deputy national political editor, will be departing after more than five years at the newspaper to take a job as associate editor at the Sacramento Bee, serving on the editorial board and writing editorials, columns, and analysis pieces. There is no positive way to spin this, so I won’t try: it is wretched news for the Washington Bureau, and he will be deeply missed. Foon is a talented and invaluable editor, lending a strong hand on assignment and story editing of our Washington report, and offering excellent news judgment accumulated over a career that has emphasized political coverage. He also is an Internet news blogger extraordinaire, almost single-handedly writing the Political Intelligence blog on a minute-by-minute basis, all day long. He is blazingly fast, and he routinely gets news out to readers of boston.com much more quickly than the wires or cable television. Foon has occupied his current post since August 2007, joining the national political desk in time to work on the dramatic 2008 presidential election. Prior to that, he served three years as the Globe’s city editor, overseeing coverage of vital metro stories like the Big Dig ceiling collapse and the Haleigh Poutre case. Former metro editor Carolyn Ryan brought him to that job in 2004 from the Raleigh News and Observer, where Foon was local news editor and then political editor. He previously held reporting jobs at the Charlotte Observer. Foon graduated from Duke University and he is a big Blue Devils fan, to the serious dismay of various Tar Heels in the newsroom. As he journeys now to the land of sunshine and movie-star governors, Foon will also be moving closer to family members, who live in Oakland. His last day at the Globe will be this Friday, Jan. 8. Please join me in wishing Foon the best of luck and congratulations before he leaves Morrissey Boulevard and hops on the Pike, westbound.

— Chris