Washington Post: Pay for play?
Kurt Brouwer July 2nd, 2009
Washington Post Cancels Plans for Off-the-Record ‘Salons’ (Washington Post, July 2, 2009, Howard Kurtz)
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.
…Moments earlier, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said in a separate interview that he was “appalled” by the plan, and he insisted before the cancellation that the newsroom would not participate.
“It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase,” Brauchli said. The proposal “promises we would suspend our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post.”
The fliers, circulated by the paper’s parent company, offering an “intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth.” The fliers, which said participants would be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon and $250,000 to underwrite an annual series of 11 sessions, were reported this morning by Politico.
“We do not offer access to the newsroom for money,” Brauchli said. “We just are not in that business.” He told the staff in an e-mail that the newsroom would have no part of this plan, writing: “Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable.”
One such flier said: “Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders . . . Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it.” That flier said a July 21 session would involve “Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post . . . An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done.”
…Weymouth knew of the plans to host small dinners at her home and to charge lobbying and trade organizations for participation. But, one of the executives said, she believed that there would be multiple sponsors, to minimize any appearance of charging for access, and that the newsroom would be in charge of the scope and content of any dinners in which Post reporters and editors participated.
…Brauchli said he was blindsided by the wording of these fliers and that they are an embarrassment to the newspaper.
…The aggressively worded pitch gives the impression that The Post is selling access to special interests, not just to administration officials and lawmakers — which raises a separate set of questions about cozy relationships — but to the people who produce the newspaper. The Post often raises questions about whether corporations, unions and trade associations receive access or favors in return for campaign contributions to political candidates…
I have generally felt that the Washington Post was one of the best media outlets for objective information. This is not just embarrassing, it’s quite a black mark on the paper’s reputation.
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