This is utterly pathetic, even by dying "old media" standards.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.So much for the "old media" being "objective" or "unbiased" (let alone "liberal" - that's always been a laugh), not that it's been that for...oh, decades now. So much for "journalistic ethics," not that we've really seen those around lately. Also, so much for the news media being anything but a servant of corporate interests. So much for citizen journalism, it's now "news media of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations." Enjoy!
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.
UPDATE: Email from executive editor of The Washington Post, Marcus Brauchli:
Marcus Brauchli/news/TWP
07/02/2009 10:33 AM
To NEWS - All Newsroom@WashPostMain
cc
Subject
Newsroom Independence
Colleagues,
A flyer was distributed this week offering an "underwriting opportunity" for a dinner on health-care reform, in which the news department had been asked to participate.
The language in the flyer and the description of the event preclude our participation.
We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money The Post will offer access to newsroom personnel or will refrain from confrontational questioning. Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable.
There is a long tradition of news organizations hosting conferences and events, and we believe The Post, including the newsroom, can do these things in ways that are consistent with our values.
Marcus
UPDATE #2: So much for that brilliant idea: "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."
