It’s Bizarro World time. What’s next? White House reporters charging to cover Prez news conferences? Politicians have to pay to be investigated for wrongdoing? “Sorry, can’t give you an interview. I have an exclusive contract with your competitor.”
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.
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…
No wonder newspapers are dying. They have no idea on the nature of their mission.
I am enjoying the demise of newspapers and television news in this country and the world. Both have become shallow, one sided, and irrelevant for so many thinking people. We have not had a newspaper fold in a month or more. Disappointing..
#2
I have to agree. There are still a few small newspapers I would like to survive but for the most part I will be glad they are gone or changed the way they operate.
Seriously, just from this article alone does anyone still think these people are still in their right minds?..for you to be reading what they might be writing about?
No one will care….I guarantee this will not hit the MSM. The media will not allow it to exist as a big story. The only story is that Obama is great and Bush caused all problems forever into the future.
Did you hear Micheal Jackson died? I hear he was on drugs….
Americans deserve every bit of the fascism they will get. I no longer want to see it avoided.
So what happens if a politician, who has expenses of his own, wants a part of the cash in order to participate?
Does $25K get a lobbyist a group meeting with a pol and other lobbyists while $250K get you a private meeting to ‘push’ your agenda more personally?
Where are the boundaries to what can happen? If a lobbyist tried to bribe an official at one of these, would the paper report it?
Sounds something like a TED conference for different interest.
I don’t think this whole deal is a nefarious as it may first seem.
Remember, the Washington Post doesn’t have to allow it’s reporters to be made available to the competition, and:
If the Post spends it’s time and money bringing people together for conferences, it should be paid for this service.
The article makes it seem that the Post is the White House Gatekeeper, which obviously isn’t true.
I’m sorry, I don’t see the problem…they are just being honest about what has always gone on. Bush was 1,000,000,000,000 times worse because he limited who could pay him off. These guys are letting anyone get in on the action.
If that old bat Helen Thomas had just paid her fees, she could have had the President’s ear.
Suck it Repubs, you have no power and no one cares about you. You have no voice, don’t matter, and might as well stop trying to have an effect.
We won.
So the Post is reduced to whoredom. Was it really any different before?
It’s like our whole American power structure is all about whoring itself…
The banksters are the johns.
The lobbyists are the pimps.
The Congress, media and academics are the abject whores.
#5,
That’s what “I’ll meet you at the restaurant down the street” is for.
I’ll bet that if the bribing parties are not discriminate, it can be reported. How could they stop it?
It’s just like politicians making others hire certain consultants for votes/access. The politician can talk directly to the lobbyist for nothing, or they can have to press organize something for a fee (say $20k) and then have the press kick back 1/2 of that to the pol as a finders fee in campaign contributions.
Dubious ethics.
The lobbyists are just upset because now instead of a $1000 dinner they can write off, they have to get someone to pay $25k or more to have the same access.
Its a sign of the times when people CHARGE for information, but thats old news now.
The Net was supposed to change everything, but no one really understood what EVERYTHING was supposed to be.
And will there be transparency with the financial transactions?
The whole world wants to know who is paying how much, to meet with whom (IRS agents) and what was discussed (reporters).
The dinner is canceled BTW:
http://tinyurl.com/njzd5w
so they admit to the practice, bfd. trees are not cheap
Everything inside the beltway is a slimy cesspool.
I really love the defenders on this thread. Very entertaining after a long day.
I got no prob with it. Reporters CAN be very insightful and help lobbyists see things from different angles.
Once you start to invite pols and “officials”, I’ve got lot’s of problems with it.
Besides, isn’t it illegal for Congress and admin officials to meet with special interests in private and “off the record”?
Selling influence. Change you can believe in?
Sounds more like the same old thing to me.
These are the people that Obama said voted for him, right?
Just one more reason a lot of Americans watch Fox News.
#14
Coitus Interruptus?