Via The Politico:
For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational 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.
I'm not sure I agree with that characterization. I take this as a sign of just how incestuous the links between the press and the Administration have gotten. For them to be so bold shows us just how smitten they are. Like Governor Sanford and his Argentinian mistress, they've finally met their "soul mate" and they just don't care what anybody thinks anymore.
Ed Morissey at Hot Air poses the most important question:
OK, OK, perhaps it isn’t fair to call the Washington Post a pimp for the White House. Maybe it would be better to call this what it is — prostitution of the press in order to gain cash and sell itself out for access, both for itself and for its clients. After all, with the Post grabbing between $25K-$250K for these soirees, it won’t do to risk its cash flow by being too critical of the White House and its occupants, would it?
Journalistic integrity? Yeah right.
This is just the latest sighting of the mythical MSM/DNC Cabal. Like the Loch Ness monster, many choose not believe in it's existence, but all these ripples in the water and long necks popping up out of the waves aren't just my imagination. It's real, it's out there hiding in plain sight, and it's up to no good... I just know it.
UPDATE: The pimp party's been called off, but Powerline sees through the Post's attempt to spin this as an innocent mistake.
The Post, embarrassed by disclosure of its cozy, profitable relationships with lobbyists and the Obama administration, has repudiated the "salon" program. Given that their publisher was the program's host and the paper's "news executives" were set to participate, the paper's suddenly discovering its ethical standards rings rather hollow.
Yeah, pretty much. The MSM/DNC Cabal can't risk something so exposed, so they'll spike this one just to maintain plausible deniability.
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiit, baby. You ain't even get up in here for less than 300K.
Posted by: cbullitt | July 03, 2009 at 09:09 PM