Washington Post: Laughingstocks and Let’s Make a Deal!; Update: “Salons” shut down
Ouch, my sides hurt from laughing.
The Washington Post says its newsroom didn’t know about the pimp deal its business/marketing side was making. The flyer advertising pay-per-view meetings with Washington Post reporters and editors and Obama officials wasn’t properly “vetted,” the paper tells Politico.
Post spokesperson Kris Coratti has now sent the following statement to POLITICO:
The flier circulated this morning came out of a business division for conferences and events, and the newsroom was unaware of such communication. It went out before it was properly vetted, and this draft does not represent what the company’s vision for these dinners are, which is meant to be an independent, policy-oriented event for newsmakers.
The statement goes on to say that WaPo is still interested in convening the conferences and charging admission while “maintaining journalistic integrity.”
So: We are supposed to believe that WaPo chief and publisher Katharine Weymouth did not know that her business division was planning to use her home to hold lucrative salons cashing in on her connections and and celebrity.
Ouch, stop, stop. Sides. Splitting.
Weymouth recently appeared on a panel on how to save journalism:
“At any given moment, there is a panel taking place somewhere in the world discussing the future of journalism,” Aspen Institute president and longtime journalist Walter Isaacson said at the end of Tuesday night’s panel discussion titled, “What’s the News Worth to You?”
Isaacson’s panel at the Institute’s Ideas Festival in Colorado was just the latest example of such a discussion and featured Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth, ABC News’s David Westin, Bloomberg L.P.’s Norman Pearlstine, Time’s Josh Tyrangiel and Journalism Online’s Steven Brill.
As is usually the case with such discussions, the group didn’t break any serious ground in determining how to save a troubled journalism industry. In fact, many had to admit that they had no idea what to do.
“We will look at anything and are taking a wait-and-see approach,” said Weymouth. “We think about a ton of things. Everything is open.” When asked whether print papers will always be around, Weymouth said, “I don’t know. I don’t predict. Nobody knows.”
“Everything is open” — including her dining and living rooms!
On Twitter, folks on both the left and right are having a field day proposing their own #WaPodeals:
sarahburris: RT @mbrownerhamlin: For only $1,500, the Washington Post will review your restaurant and say the soufflé didn’t collapse #WaPoDeals
drjjoyner: RT @TeresaKopec: For $10,000 George Will will wear jeans for a day. #WapoDeals
***
Update: WaPo climbs down. The “salons” are closed:
Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.
“Absolutely, I’m disappointed,” Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. “This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren’t vetted. They didn’t represent at all what we were attempting to do. We’re not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom.”
Moments earlier, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said in a separate interview that he was “appalled” by the plan and had insisted before the cancellation that the newsroom would not participate.
“It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase,” Brauchli said. The proposal “promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post.
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- Washington Post Sells White House Access to Lobbyists, and Misreports Obama Health-Care Facts | OpenMarket.org
- Exposed: Liberal biased Washington Post (WaPo) calls off All-Access lobbyist “salons” | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- The Washington Pimp: Post For Sale «
- Washington Post Caught Red Handed selling Obama Admin Access to Lobbyists, re: Obama Health Care Business Oppertunities « VotingFemale Speaks!
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- $25K+: Selling Dinner Seats to Lobbyists to Chat With Obama Officials « Evynn’s Weblog
- Ed Driscoll » The Washington Post: Was Anyone Really Surprised?
- The Greenroom » Forum Archive » Great Deals At The Washington Post
- Wizbang
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chap, better to have loved and lost…well, maybe not. Try the WSJ. Great cartoons!
I’m not a professional journalist. Hell, I don’t even play one on TV. But I did stay in a Holiday Inn Express once so let me make a silly wild-a$$ guess. It’s not that difficult really.
Try writing impartial news stories that focus on the facts, not your liberal agenda.
Stop looking down your nose at your readers and those who might be as though your sh*t doesn’t stink because you know what, it and your present “news” content does. And there are millions of Americans that are a lot smarter than you are as evidenced by the fact that you have no idea what to do as your entire industry circles around the drain.
But I know you’ll never do anything that would improve your product, which I why I invested in an 18 year old single malt that I will break open the day the NYT goes out of business.
Anyone from the WaPo is free to respond:
I’m drawing a blank here. Please remind us about all the skeptical questioning you did throughout the Clinton years and since January 20, 2009.
If anyone on the board cares to see where our culture is taking is, they should watch “Idiocracy”. They have the Carl’s JR ad campaign nailed to a t.
Liberal rags are hypocritical by their very existance. Anybody know how many trees they have to kill to print the NYT? Would be a great scoop.
The Washington Post now has to register as a lobbyist. Anyone who pays or is paid to lobby government officials is a lobbyist. The Washington Post was requesting payment for lobbying, so they are required to register.
Incidentally, are lobbyists allowed to get press credentials?
Was it WaPo that broke Watergate with Woodward/ Bernstein? Maybe they had Nixon in their pocket and he was Deep Throat?
Interesting how they KNOW they can deliver all these key politicians at designated times. What do the politicians get out of this? A free dinner?
I don’t doubt for a minute that they didn’t know.
The ‘news room’ did not know of the flier that was put out for July 31, 2009 that required their attendance at a “reception”. When the news editor already admitted he read it, approved of it, and had arranged for attendance? huh?
I want access to news organizations.
I’d pay just to give them a piece of my mind.
I can understand that, since it’s the exact same output as the liberal media. The advantage is that your cat covers up its poop while the WaPo calls it “a headline.”
IndyRich, you hit the nail on the head. Four times! You get the gold star.
Teddy, isn’t that Irish Coffee you drink? hic!
And now this…
The WaHO protects its list of political “workers” in its stable.
Other journalists have asked for the names of the politicians who were lined up for these “salons”. The WaHO is refusing to dish.
Typical “madame” behavior. Get a warrant…