Washington 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.
via Washington Post sells access, $25,000+ – Mike Allen – POLITICO.com.
This is one of the most amazing things I’ve read this year.
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I’d take out a loan but….shit, we’re alternating our gas and electric bills each month just to get by. What is this? High-end “access” sounds like prostitution to me. This can’t be for real… is it, Matt?
[...] (Found via Matt Taibbi’s blog.) [...]
For a healthcare LOBBYIST to go to the press and ‘out’ the Washington Post because he/she believed there was some sort of conflict of interest means the industry knows full well it doesn’t need to pay to have access to “the powerful few.”
This is terribly sad and indicative of the state of our great newspapers that are run by family members who have no ink in their veins. This is a shocking insult to the memory of Katherine Graham, who did know how to run a newspaper.
I am finding that many leaders are refusing to downsize their company in response to the very real financial pain of this transition. As it turns out, humans in fear regress to the “lizard brain” which only allows for a few responses, notably among them, “Defend the Territory.” Rather than shrink in size while keeping your values, you do ANYTHING to keep the territory the same size. In this case, the Washington Post is selling off its integrity in iceberg sized chunks rather than admit fiscal reality. Sad to watch, but all too common.
Our once laudable 4th estate is lost. In this case, the Washington Post is walking in to back door legislation territory. Aren’t they supposed to be reporting on lobbyist’s influence, not creating a new cocoon for such things? I feel for the J students at my school.
Liberal Media my ass!
Our media has one master and it sure ain’t ‘the left’.
Since the right considers anyone outside of the 28% as the left even though most of us are not left (we just think the right is nuts) maybe we should come up with a term that encompasses all of us correctly. I’m thinking ‘the enemy’. Thoughts?
Is it just my browser or are all of you seeing comments stepped on by ads?
“High-end “access” sounds like prostitution to me” — mswhitneylee
I think the Post’s role here is technically pimping, not prostitution per se, but, yeah.
I think the darkest days for WaPo were when Edward McLean, publisher, provided false alibi to explain the existance of all those Teapot Blown Liberty Bonds in Secretary of Ag’s bank account. To avoid the humiliation and justice for his fibbie, he checked himself into an asylum. That was the plan for the “little black bag” man, son to one of the plotters who paid the highest price for hubris. Really took the fun out of screwing the country for all those bums. Folks are still shy about straightening out that one. See Chandler’s High Window for the gossipy cops and PI tale at the end. Almost feel sorry for them, NOT!!
I’m always bringing up the past because it’s the closest appproximation I can get to what the hell is going on these days; so much of it goes on in little black boxes. Honestly, they have lost their senses, and I don’t know if they will ever get them back. From what planet would that idea make sense? Let you talk to us as a group about what you care about the way you see it while you pay us without succumbing to your influence? Are they high? That shtick belongs to Congress!
Watched little Howie Kurtz this morning on Unreliable Sources to see if there would be any mention of his paper’s “Pay to Play” scandal.
Only a half hour, and he spent 98% of it whining about the wall to wall coverage of Michael Jackson’s death, ignoring the irony of spending almost his whole show on it!
At the very end, for about 20 seconds, he jammed in a mention of WaPo’s P2P scandal, with no discussion of the ethics involved…I suspect so he can say “I covered it!”
Howie considers himself the Washington Wit, and I suspect he’s halfway there!
Thanks for all your incredible work on Goldman-Sachs…I read every one of your articles at Rolling Stone too.
I am continually amused (bemused?) by the Orwellian use of words and phrases like “agenda” and “conspiracy theories.” Two guys ordering a pizza have an “agenda.” Three folks intending to scalp Michael Jackson funeral tickets are involved in a “conspiracy.” Every major event in history has been the result of a conspiracy, “Et tu, Brutti?”