What can I say? That Katharine Weymouth, publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, was shocked, shocked to discover that her marketing department was selling places to a series of “intimate and exclusive” political salons at her house? Or, rather, was she shocked and dismayed to discover that her marketing department had been discovered selling the spots?
Personally, I have a grudging admiration for the brass of Charles Pelton, the Post executive who came up with the idea. “Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table,” one of his fliers advised.
“Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders . . . Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it.”
The cost? $25,000 to “sponsor” one event (Maximum of two sponsors per “intimate and exclusive” event). Or get a bulk deal on all eleven: only $250,000 for the lot. The Washington Post, incidentally, lost $19.5 million last quarter.
The blogosphere naturally had a field day with the story. Every place from the Daily Kos to The Weekly Standard reacted with disgust (tempered, in many cases, with a dollop of humor: The Weekly Standard reports this “Twitter of the Day”: “i heard joe biden tried to pay the Post $25k to have access to the obama administration”).
My unofficial survey suggests that the word “pimp” has not made so many public appearances since the days of the Mayflower Madam. Once the egg had been thoroughly distributed across the collective countenance of The Washington Post, it was simply business as usual for Ms. Weymouth to step on to her oversized mare to express sorrow, disappointment, surprise (shock, shock, remember?) that such a thing could be going on at her newspaper. “Absolutely, I’m disappointed,” she said.
“This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren’t vetted. They didn’t represent at all what we were attempting to do. We’re not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom.”
Marcus Brauchli, executive editor of the Post, got on to a horse of his to iterate this deep concern about journalistic integrity. Ms. Weymouth was “disappointed,” but Brauchli confessed himself positively “appalled” by the idea. “It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase,” he said, underlining the obvious.
So what do you think? What if the fliers hadn’t gone public: would the salons have proceeded as planned? How much of Ms. Weymouth’s disappointment and Mr. Brauchli’s feelings of being “appalled” are due to the squamous light of publicity, not to say ridicule?I don’t know the answer to that question. But here’s another: were you surprised when you read that the mighty Washington Post was offering lobbyists access to senior Obama administration officials in exchange for a hefty pile of shekels? Or did you react as I did, with a snort of contempt and the muttered exclamation: “it figures”?
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67 Comments
1. Pajamas Media » The Washington Post: Was Anyone Really Surprised?:[...] Read the rest of the story here. [...]
Jul 2, 2009 - 4:00 pm 2. x_logo:When a consumer products manager tried to explain the failure of a much hyped pet food to upper management his response was equally illuminating:
“Only one problem: the dogs won’t eat the dog food”
NYT — RIP
Jul 2, 2009 - 4:11 pm 3. alinosof:During the Bush years, the Washington Post aka the Potomac Pravda would pimp the administration policies in exchange for access and they continued the practice with the current administration. But with the squeeze on the news paper business, they came up with the pay to play scheme. Unfortunately for the WaPimp, a lobbyist didn’t like the racketeering and leaked the flier to Politico. Ahhhh, the irony! And these hypocrites would seat in judgment and write editorials about Rod Blagojevich lack of ethics! It’s the pot calling the kettle black. How pathetic!
Jul 2, 2009 - 4:30 pm 4. "progressive"watch:I am concerned about journalistic integrity,too,like the Washington Post,only my concern is real. In fact,I have been concerned about journalistic integrity at the Washington Post for a number of years,or rather the lack of it. The Obama adminstration also lacks integrity of almost every kind. I wonder what percentage their cut of it was?
Jul 2, 2009 - 4:32 pm 5. cirby:Does Charles Pelton still have a job at the Post?
If so, why?
Does anyone really think that someone – anyone – who caused such a ruckus without permission from upstairs would be allowed to remain in the building for more than a few hours?
Jul 2, 2009 - 4:46 pm 6. Gallifet:Roger,
Jul 2, 2009 - 4:54 pm 7. Strawman:Here is the recommendation of the Marquis: Join a Patriot group and go to an event for the 4th of July. Do not sit and brood, get out and get mad! We have 620 events
scheduled for the 4th. That’s up from 470 last week. The GOP isn’t finding it’s balance here,
Patriotic Americans need to do it! And you know what? It really feels good!
Actually, when I read the story, Dilbert came to mind. Yes, I really do believe that marketing can be that clueless.
Jul 2, 2009 - 5:09 pm 8. Peter the Australian:One of Rupert Murdoch’s executives gave a speech here in Oz the other day noting that the US newspaper is a dying breed. The main reason was not the blogosphere, he claimed, but the fact that the newspapers of the US are so boring. Really the reaosn that newspapers all over are losing readers is that they are too left wing.
I live in the most affluent part of Sydney. An area that votes 70% conservative and has done since the Flood. Yet the idiots at the local newspaper have made their rag more and more left-wing in the last year. The result is that their circulation advertising revenue is down as social class A readers desert them in droves.
The answer is therefore simple: papers will survive if they become more right wing, because that is the default social position. As Margaret Thatcher once said: “the facts of life are conservative.”
Jul 2, 2009 - 5:10 pm 9. AtheistConservative:It continues to blow my mind that any leftist could say with a straight face (or, in this case, emoticon) that any newspapers did similar things for the Bush administration. The Bush administration was excoriated from almost day one by our leftist media. Even the ‘right wing extremist’ Fox News took Bush to task constantly … for not being Conservative enough (which he wasn’t).
This whole “Bush did it, so Obama can do it” line is ridiculous for two reasons: it’s not true, and wasn’t the whole idea behind Obama supposedly ‘change’? How can leftists sleep at night?
Jul 2, 2009 - 5:43 pm 10. Deep Brain Diarist:I must say, I find PJM’s wheedling and whinging about “journalistic integrity” amusing, to say the least.
Jul 2, 2009 - 5:48 pm 11. AtheistConservative:There’s also a distinct parallel between the fall of Hollywood and the fall of the mainstream media. Both have become unbearably self-obsessed, and are essentially producing media for their own consumption. Both should suffer the consequences.
Jul 2, 2009 - 5:55 pm 12. Sebastian Shaw:The papers need to report the facts, leave out all editorial & save it for the Editorial Page; however, most papers refuse to change their business model given they live in a Leftist liberal bubble–isolated from the real world. The Washington Post’s dalliance with corruption has become all the more evident with this unreported story from the slobbering husk of the MSM. Essentially, the liberal editors are putting the stake into their own papers.
Jul 2, 2009 - 5:55 pm 13. Nightjar:Cohen really said that Anti-American crap? I am a somewhat sorry and surprised to hear it because he has lately been the recipient of a little bit of Strange New Respect due to his dispatches from Iran.
Jul 2, 2009 - 6:09 pm 14. Spider79:High 5 Mr. Kimball.
Jul 2, 2009 - 6:29 pm 15. X Contra:Legacy media. Good phrase.
I was commenting about this a few days ago in the Digits blog in WSJ.com. Kimberly Chou reported some obnoxious comments from Frank Rich, who has become a dinosaur from another age.
Roger Cohen, another dinosaur from the age of Sulzberger.
Jul 2, 2009 - 6:47 pm 16. WaPo is a slutball. « X Contra:[...] I guess. But in the specific case of WaPo, I would just call it a newspaper with round heels. The Washington Post: was anyone really surprised? Katharine Weymouth, publisher and CEO of the Washington Post, was shocked, shocked to discover that [...]
Jul 2, 2009 - 6:48 pm 17. Dappin:What really Grinds My Gears about this – or at least gets my radar up – is not the Post or its lack of ethics (as Roger notes, no one should really be surprised), but the ethical issues associated with Administration appointees and members of Congress whoring themselves up to help the Post bring in some money. I suppose its possible that no “administration officials” had been contacted about participating in such events at Wilmouth’s house, but that seems very unlikely to me (why would they advertise events for which they did not have the headliners lined up).
I hope the Politico folks or others are asking questions about this.
Jul 2, 2009 - 6:49 pm 18. Maeve B:Oh, let them keep admiring the emperor’s new clothes. The rest of us know where it’s at.
Jul 2, 2009 - 7:09 pm 19. Juvenal:#17 Dappin:
You shouldn’t be any more shocked or disappointed over White House or congressional involvement in this than you are that the WaPo would organize it in the first place.
The really shocking thing is that, if this were as widely publicized as it deserves to be, the public at large would mostly shrug. Just as they have with a thousand other stories since early last year.
Jul 2, 2009 - 7:26 pm 20. NCBob:Yeah, but does my entry fee get me any good looking honeys to do whatever and enough good dope to keep us both happy?
Jul 2, 2009 - 7:34 pm 21. AThinkingPerson:My boss is very fussy about the returns on hi bribes to the press and the pimps who own them.
I’m still wondering what lit a fire under Helen Thomas yesterday? I’m sure Gibbs is wondering too! Good times.
Jul 2, 2009 - 7:56 pm 22. Robert - Coeur d'Alene:Bravo!
Jul 2, 2009 - 8:03 pm 23. zhombre:I suppose that explains Mr. Cohen’s boundless affection for Obama: he wasn’t born here either.
Jul 2, 2009 - 8:19 pm 24. Just Some Guy:Let us forecast.
The classic MSM is dying and will soon be dead entirely. What among it survives? People magazine and the National Enquirer. High-cost news-reporting by institutions like the New York Times and WaPo will not survive.
Will people still seek news (outside the sensationalist type served up by People etc.)?
Maybe. Probably. But they will go online for it, because it is faster, cheaper, and easier that way.
How will that affect the news people consume?
Yes, the MSM is biased, because the people who go into MSM news tend to be liberal. But the people who write online news tend not to fact-check. Truly. This is a problem.
Jul 2, 2009 - 8:32 pm 25. DavidN:You said this Cohen guy is a reporter for the NYT, so is it any wonder he thinks the impending demise of the paper a serious calamity? Such people imagine that their own lives, circumstances, and employment, are of *utmost* importance to the world, and the United States.
Jul 2, 2009 - 9:34 pm 26. Andrew P:The legacy media are desperate. They are failing financially. Ad rates are still falling, and Craigslist is utterly killing them. WAPO is only solvent because it owns Kaplan, and how long will that last? Obama controls all the money and all the power. They all want to be on his good side. It is really about survival, or at least getting a nice TARP bailout when they slip into the abyss.
And radio is no better off. Clear Channel is overleveraged from the buyout, and is certain to fail. I’ll bet that Obama moves on radio when CC files for bankruptcy.
Jul 2, 2009 - 9:39 pm 27. Gregory Koster:Dear Mr. Kimball: I don’t understand one point. Assume all 11 POST whorings got their full price. Total: $550,000. That would be a lot of dough for me, likely for you too. But for the POST? The company has about 9.5 million shares outstanding, so this gig would increase their gross earnings by about six-tenths of a cent per share. What’s next? Sending Dan Balz and Tom Shales out on the DC streets at 3 AM with a hacksaw so they can saw off the tops of parking meters and get a payday? Or take up bank robbery as a career, starting with Lehman Brothers? What possessed these fools to sell themselves for so little? Or is 550K only the surface of the graft they hoped to get?
Sincerely yours,
Jul 2, 2009 - 9:40 pm 28. Saltherring:Gregory Koster
DBD @ 10 states, “I must say, I find PJM’s wheedling and whinging about “journalistic integrity” amusing, to say the least.”
Just what do you find “amusing”….that the legacy media is as corrupt as the Obama administration, perhaps? Personally, I doubt this revelation surprises anyone with half a brain and an ounce of integrity or objectivity.
Jul 2, 2009 - 10:18 pm 29. Mike2:26. Gregory Koster:
“What possessed these fools to sell themselves for so little? Or is 550K only the surface of the graft they hoped to get?”
I think you know the answer to your question. We are living in such corrupt times it is unimaginable to a lot of people like me. It’s as if we are back in the Gilded Age all over again. It’s deja vu all over again. Rome is getting ready to burn and the party is just getting going.
Jul 2, 2009 - 11:05 pm 30. lefroy:. . did the Obama adminsitration flunkies KNOW that the WP was charging mendicants to attend these soirees?
Jul 3, 2009 - 12:06 am 31. Steve G:# 30
Jul 3, 2009 - 3:36 am 32. chris in Toronto:Where do you think the WP got the idea? You don’t think those flunkies were on call for free, do you?
Steve G
Did I miss something? How did a newspaper come to be able to sell to lobbyists access to Cabinet and Congressional officials?
Jul 3, 2009 - 3:39 am 33. John Frary:Although a dedicated celibate, I should have thought that $25,000 invested in services provided by the Mayflower Madame or her like would have provided more entertainment, with a lighter burden of sin.
Jul 3, 2009 - 3:48 am 34. Jane:OT – Mr. Kimball – I just wanted to tell you how much I love The New Criterion – Thank you. I wish more people subscribed. It is an amazing periodical.
Jul 3, 2009 - 4:00 am 35. Today’s Oxymoron: Journalistic Integrity at Chicks On The Right:[...] and “moral bankruptcy” and “breathtaking arrogance” come up in Roger Kimball’s blog entry that discusses this joke of an event. And, I’d say that all of these phrases are quite [...]
Jul 3, 2009 - 4:20 am 36. Instapundit » Blog Archive » ROGER KIMBALL: The Washington Post Pay-to-Play Scandal: Was Anyone Really Surprised?…:[...] ROGER KIMBALL: The Washington Post Pay-to-Play Scandal: Was Anyone Really Surprised? [...]
Jul 3, 2009 - 5:02 am 37. Mark in Texas:AThinkingPerson: I’m still wondering what lit a fire under Helen Thomas yesterday?
She is not concerned about the content of what is reported but on who is producing it. The tradition is that Helen Thomas transcribes left wing propaganda from a Democrat Whitehouse and that is what gets published. The Obama people are cutting out the middle man and delivering their propaganda directly to the newspaper typesetters and broadcast stations. That breaks Helen Thomas’ rice bowl. The whole thing is basically a labor dispute like when some office worker moves a desk and the union files a grievance.
Jul 3, 2009 - 5:21 am 38. Sam Johnson:Roger Cohen on economics? What next for that apologist for Hamas and (until very recently) for the mad mullahs in Iran. Perhaps he will offer his thoughts on Quantum Mechanics or the Krebs cycle.
Jul 3, 2009 - 5:38 am 39. Journalism For Sale « Left, Right, and Centered:[...] Journalism For Sale July 3, 2009 Posted by Cory Franklin in Uncategorized. trackback Here [...]
Jul 3, 2009 - 5:44 am 40. sherlock:To second #17, the use of the word “guaranteed” by a seller is normally an indication that he is certain of the efficacy his product, especially at $250K a pop.
How would such certainty have been achieved, short of the exchange of certain valuable considerations? Hmmmm?
That is what needs looking into by a good investigative journalist… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!
(I was advised to always wrap up a pursuasive argument with a little humor, the more absurd the better.)
Jul 3, 2009 - 5:52 am 41. Roger Kimball on the WP scandal (and the “legacy media”)… « thinking out loud . . .:[...] Read the rest… [...]
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:05 am 42. AThinkingPerson:Re #37 Mark in Texas: Darn it, I know you’re right. I was really, really hoping she’d be roused out of her kool-aid coma though. I have to admit I enjoyed watching Gibbs desperately trying his usual comedy routine to try and deflect the questions elsewhere.
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:14 am 43. Martin L. Shoemaker:26. Gregory Koster:
In the coverage I’ve seen, it hasn’t been clear whether a “salon” could have multiple sponsors. If it could, then those numbers could go way up.
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:30 am 44. Wellspring:Ummm, I actually was surprised. For the Washington Post to sell what they’ve already been giving the Obama Administration for free was a big shock.
They seem to be morphing from a non-profit advocacy group into a real capitalist enterprise pushing a “slanted news for hire” model. If even journalists can convert to capitalism, then there really is hope.
Green shoots!
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:34 am 45. john from cinncinatti:it is a townhall meeting but in a little more homestyle setting. the price was just a leader, like 4 new tires staring at 99 dollars, wait you want to talk to someone more important than the custodian in the white house, that will cost you just a wee bit more. a policy maker? man thats a whole lot more.
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:45 am 46. john from cinncinatti:staring -starting
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:47 am 47. glenn:Anybody know the difference between sales and marketing?
Sales says; “If you cut the price you’ll sell more units.”
Marketing says; If you cut the price you’ll sell more units and how do you like my new dress.”
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:57 am 48. TexEd:I’ve long believed that newspapers have taken bribes to print some stuff and other bribes NOT to print other stuff. This proves it.
Jul 3, 2009 - 7:22 am 49. Macbee:However, isn’t this what the relatives of many Congressmen do; Biden’s son, Rangel or Dashiel’s wife?
AThinkingPerson: It will be interesting to see if Helen Thomas still has any real influence with the Press Corps. Any Democratic administration that gets compared with Nixon by a left-lib journo like Thomas has better hope that she’s no longer a player, ’cause otherwise she’s in a position to do some damage. We can only hope…
Jul 3, 2009 - 7:37 am 50. sheesh:“It’s an outrage! It’s outrageous! There’s no room in this society or this government or the fourth estate for such sweetheart winks and nods.” – Armstrong Williams.
Jul 3, 2009 - 7:39 am 51. obladioblada:Marketing’s real crime in this promotion is that it accurately described the product, price and place.
Jul 3, 2009 - 7:40 am 52. carly:What were they thinking? there is a related post at http://iamsoannoyed.com/?p=2042
Jul 3, 2009 - 8:24 am 53. seven:The pubic display of affection between the paper and the whitehouse. Just too progressive. Pelosi and Murtha feeding business to their family? Also too progressive.
Jul 3, 2009 - 9:45 am 54. Fen:uhm, what does “NYT” stand for again? I forget.
Jul 3, 2009 - 10:23 am 55. Fen:See, we don’t get Pravda in these parts.
Jul 3, 2009 - 10:23 am 56. JKB:The LA Times had this regarding the sponsor limit
“Kris Coratti, a spokeswoman for the newspaper, said Weymouth and Brauchli knew there would be revenue drawn from the dinners. But they thought there would be a minimum of two sponsors — thus limiting the financial influence of any one group, she said. The flier, in contrast, said there would be a maximum of two.
The flier, Coratti said, “is a misrepresentation of what they had originally been thinking about as a concept.”
So they obviously were doing the capitalist thing and get as many sponsors as possible. Plus, isn’t it curious that they claim the flyer misrepresented the original thinking but never actually say what that thinking was?
Jul 3, 2009 - 12:45 pm 57. David M. in Europe:There is no future for printing business but a promising future for escort club branch and the Wa$hington Po$t has changed its business before going bankrupt.
Jul 3, 2009 - 12:52 pm 58. vanderleun:These days mentions of intellectual sluts like Cohen and the New York Times always brings to my mind this passage from Dickens:
Driven home into the heart of the stone figure attached to it, was a knife. Round its hilt was a frill of paper, on which was scrawled: “Drive him fast to his tomb. This, from Jacques.”
Jul 3, 2009 - 12:59 pm 59. kevinS:Sheesh,
With Armstrong Williams you neglect to state that the Dept of Education paid him to positively publicize NCLB (which was unethical and unprofessional for Williams to accept; and silly for the government, no matter if done with good intentions). However, with the WaPo, they were advertising their access to government and selling that access to anyone who wanted to get inside and make their pitch. I will assume that the White house was complicit in this (it just sounds so, Chicago). So, rather than being identical to Williams it is exactly opposite. It is the WaPo and the White House selling access to any and all takers.
Jul 3, 2009 - 1:47 pm 60. Bleepless:I am curious: which bureaucrats and Congressthings were coming, and what were they paid?
Jul 3, 2009 - 6:20 pm 61. Jeff:The New York Times? Is that, like, a newspaper, or something?
Jul 4, 2009 - 2:59 am 62. Roy:THE LEGACY MEDIA WILL BE THE NEXT BENEFICIARY OF OBAMA STIMULUS/BAILOUT CORRUPTION PROGRAM, among others.
Jul 4, 2009 - 7:09 am 63. Mike Kelley:I only read our local fishwrap at work while heating up my lunch, but it looks from their headlines like they are trying to convince us that the “stimulus” is doing great things for our state. There is no mention of the national debt. Perhaps not coincidentally, their stock is now worth about 58 cents a share.
Jul 4, 2009 - 8:33 am 64. Patrick of Atlantis:Well, considering that lobbying is the biggest racket in town, it’s hard to blame that floundering rag from getting into it. I wish I could get into it. The Waxman-Markey Faux Energy Bill looks like a huge windfall for lobbyists/bagmen.
Jul 4, 2009 - 1:03 pm 65. Mike Murray:Nope, not surprised at all. Been complaining for years. See:
Media Meltdown http://emmeffemm.com/id47 and
Ideology Streams http://emmeffemm.com/id82.html
Jul 4, 2009 - 1:42 pm 66. Steve:I hope this revelation hastens the demise of the WaPo. The print media is now just a giant democratic propaganda machine, and most likely this is the reason that circulation and adverting are dropping. People now know that anything by the liberal print media is most likely not really news but an editorial or opinion piece that is extreme left in their views. I guess you will now have to line your birdcage with McDonalds or Burger King bags because soon there will be no more newspapers in the country.
Jul 4, 2009 - 3:42 pm 67. old wanderer:Helen Thomas was bent out of shape at Zero’s minions having the audacity to feed a question to a Huffpo goon not her highness the Lefist Dowager Queen Helen.
Jul 5, 2009 - 9:56 amAnother way of viewing horrible Helen’s outburst at Gibbs by the Witch of White House press corp’s anger is the old maxim that hell hath no fury to equal that of a woman scorned.