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TechnoratiWashington Post Sells Access, $25,000+
For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" - Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors.
![[For a price, The Washington Post offers lobbyists off-the-record access to 'those powerful few.' Photo: AP ]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/post-2.jpg "post-2.jpg")
The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it's a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its "health care reporting and editorial staff."
The offer - which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters - is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.
And it's a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.
"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate," says the one-page flier. "Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. ... Bring your organization's CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders ...
"Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. What is guaranteed is a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds typically on the guest list of 20 or less. ...
"Offered at $25,000 per sponsor, per Salon. Maximum of two sponsors per Salon. Underwriters' CEO or Executive Director participates in the discussion. Underwriters appreciatively acknowledged in printed invitations and at the dinner. Annual series sponsorship of 11 Salons offered at $250,000 ... Hosts and Discussion Leaders ... Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post ... An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done. ... A Washington Post Salon ... July 21, 2009 6:30 p.m."
POLITICO has asked The Washington Post for a response, and will post it when it arrives.
Sources at the paper say the marketing offer may be getting ahead of what the newsroom is prepared to deliver. The newspaper recently hired someone to organize conferences, and his primary mission is to stage on-the-record events about topical subjects in Washington. Conferences are a trend throughout the news industry.
"Washington Post Salons are extensions of The Washington Post brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard," the flier says. "At the core is a critical topic of our day. Dinner and a volley of ideas unfold in an evening of intelligent, news-driven and off-the-record conversation. ... By bringing together those powerful few in business and policy-making who are forwarding, legislating and reporting on the issues, Washington Post Salons give life to the debate. Be at this nexus of business and policy with your underwriting of Washington Post Salons."
The first "Salon" is titled, "Health-Care Reform: Better or Worse for Americans? The reform and funding debate."
31 Comments so far
Show AllISRAEL
This isn't very different from the 5,000 dollar/plate spaghetti dinners that politicians throw to raise money/sell access.
I mean, pasta is usually on sale for about two dollars a kilo, so the other 4,998 dollars is a bribe.
"Not a word that he uttered will see print. You have forgotten the editors. They draw their salaries for the policy they maintain. Their policy is to print nothing that is a vital menace to the established. The press of the United States? It is a parasitic growth that battens on the capitalist class. Its function is to serve the established by moulding public opinion, and right well it serves it.” From IRON HEEL by Jack London.
Hoa binh
True words.
So, where are we to get our news from?
They just canceled the "Salons". Probably headed for a saloon now.
I suspect that Dan Froomkin is glad to be an ex-employee of that rag. Our national capital is now served by two "newspapers" dedicated to keeping the truth from their readers.
In the words of my dead mother:
"Jesus H. Christ!"
"Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon . . . "
Salon? How about a whorehouse.
Its another outragous act by the Politcal Powers that be, to get access to the "leaders" of our country through what amounts to a bribe to a leading newspaper in our Nations Capitol.
But it does show one thing, the poohbah's, are getting nervous because more and more people are actively pushing for healthcare reform to their Senators, Congressmen and women and all the way up to the White House. The poohbah's may have the money but there are more of us than them and its strength in numbers that is causing the reaction from the political elite.
Actually, I suspect that this story, as important as it is, will be ignored by the corporate media.
It is amusing how conservatives will use this as a "liberal media" issue - as if the agenda of a corporation seeking political influence is "liberal" in any way other than the classic lazzez-faire economic meaning of the word.
No wonder WaPost endorsed Obama for prez. WaPost is getting desperate and this kind of despicable behavior will show the sharp drop in subscriptions. Much as I can't stand the "conservatives", they're gonna have one hell of a field day after another hounding WaPost and tying them to liberals before it's over.
Ehh, if McCain were president, WaPo would do the same thing. This isn't a political ideology issue. They are DESPERATE for money. Any money. They don't see that this short-sighted whoring out of themselves will make their financial problems worse in the long term, not better.
They pretty much conceded recently that they will not call torture torture, not because in their opinion it isn't torture, but because they are afraid of getting sued, and the legal fees involved.
We are truly in trouble folks. Truly in trouble.
The stench thickens.
July 2, 2009, 1:10 pm
Washington Post Cancels Series of ‘Salons’ Charging Lobbyists for Access to Its Staff
So, under a building roar or outrage, the scheme was cancelled.
Did they actually think that there wouldn't be an uproar over this? Were they "feeling the waters"? Were they so clueless as to the ethics of the situaton that an uproar was needed for them to review their journalism ethics guidance? Or, did they simply not intend the flier be seen outside of the corporate/government/media elites, so when it leasked out, they had to do a CIA-style plausable denial act?
For me, the outrage has turned into a very spooky feeling...
Since the Post serves as Quasi-Official Pimp for the Ruling Class, they might as well charge Spitzer-class prices for Up Close and Personal Hand Jobs with the Stars.
I'm hoping that they'll broaden their offerings and make them more affordable. Of course, the venue would change accordingly.
But I'd gladly pay a hundred bucks to attend a WaPo Carnival for a chance to drop Broder into the Dunk Tank.
Or T-bone the odious Dana Milbank on the bumper cars.
· Yr Obd't Servant
Liberty is but happiness in the cradle that does not sleep when rocked but rises to defend its self.
Didn't we used to have "sunshine laws" in this country, which made it a crime to conduct the public's business in private?
From the smoke-filled rooms of legendary Jersey City kingmaker Frank Hague, to Bohemian Grove bacchanals, to Dick Cheney's off-the-record oil policy meetings, to the oh-so-refined "salons" of the People Who Matter---it appears that nothing has changed except the venue.
And lest we forget, the WaPo's Katherine Graham once stated that there are some things the public is better off not knowing, and that she felt it her duty to keep it from them. Aren't you moved by her concern for our feeble brains?
Freedom of the press? My esteemed buttocks!
Every time I think I can be no more apalled at the vile power-grubbing corporte media, news like this comes along.
If we ever have a revolution, it will be the entire editorial staff of the WP and NYT that should be the first against the wall.
Washington Puss
BBC America is making significant inroads into the US TV market by delivering a reasonable approximation of ... wait for it ... NEWS coverage instead of fluff and stenography.
With luck, maybe someday we'll have the option of subscribing to The Guardian (America).
In my wildest dreams, we might even get a real news radio network, kind of what NPR pretends to be but doesn't have the cajones for.
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
This almost sounds like a Yes Men hijinx, or an Onion headline. Unbelievable -- not that they do it (that's been obvious all along), but that they actually admit it with a straight face.
Well frankly for this "Native Son" this is very 'refreshing'.
Those of us who have been the 'front line recipients' of American hypocrisy for many generations, have from the beginning been attempting to bring the subject to the fore front, i.e. if it's 'for sale' then give the rest of us a chance at 'bidding'..........
Here it is is simple terms.
So my recommendation now is.
Hey, America, who's song do you want those 'prostitutes in power' to be singing except 'the song of the one who paid the most'.
How many people out there 'drop money' into the collection plate because their "God"---or his 'son' ---'needs the money'? So now they can drop some money elsewhere---get some immediate results, and if they are not happy with the results----get another 'prostitute'...............
There may be some hope for you yet America-----
He who has the most money AND has a definite liberal slant to their cause. You can bet the Washington Post (which I grew up reading) wouldn't let a measly 1/4 million stop the Obama love fest.
The gulf of understanding between someone like you and us is huge, but maybe I'll try to bridge it.
The "Obama love fest" is largely in the form of powerful capitalist corporations - health Insurance, finance, mining and electric power - controlling Obama's and the Democrat-majority congress's legislative agenda.
Do you consider a corporations agenda - profit at any cost to the worker and the environment, to be a "liberal" thing or a "conservative" thing?
Nobody ever mentions that one reason newspaper subscriptions are dropping off is the proliferation of corporate press releases being passed off as news.
'Nobody' meaning the corporate broadcasters & shills.
We shouldn't forget how long it took American journalists to develop courage in the post WWII era. Go through most of the headlines at the times & mostly you'll find screaming about the danger of the reds & the necessity for A-bombs & H-bombs & wars to stop the commies. It only went sour in the mid-late '60s, but it took just under a couple of decades to mend fences & return to the position as the unofficial scribes of the Ministry of Truth.
Says it all.
Nobody ever mentions that one reason newspaper subscriptions are dropping off is the proliferation of corporate press releases being passed off as news.