[3] Witherow began his career in 1970 in South West Africa, (the future Namibia), where he set up a library for local students.

[12] In early 2013, Witherow was made editor of The Times in succession to James Harding, despite opposition from the newspaper's independent directors who objected to the fact Rupert Murdoch had not consulted them.

[18] Early in Witherow's editorship at The Sunday Times the paper published false claims that Labour politician Michael Foot was a KGB agent.

[20] Replying to a letter of complaint from Balding, Witherow wrote, "In my view some members of the gay community need to stop regarding themselves as having a special victim status and behave like any other sensible group that is accepted by society.

[21] While working as editor at The Times, Witherow received a letter from leading UK scientists, including Lord Krebs and Lord Stern, which criticised an article for being based on a method that "involves ignoring everything that science has discovered about atmospheric physics since the discovery of greenhouse warming by John Tyndall more than 150 years ago" while adding, "On social media it has, literally, been a laughing stock.

[22] In 2016, as editor of The Times, Witherow failed to cover the Hillsborough stadium disaster inquest verdict on its front page.

The Times' football correspondent, Tony Barrett, resigned in protest at the paper's apparent failure.