Washington Post Cancels Lobbyist Event Amid Uproar
Thursday 02 July 2009
by: Mike Allen and Michael Calderone | Visit article original @ Politico
Washington Post Publisher and Chief Executive Officer Katharine Weymouth said today she was cancelling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where, for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper's own reporters and editors.
The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its "health care reporting and editorial staff."
With the newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the solicitation, Weymouth and Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli both said they were not aware of the flier.
"This should never have happened," Weymouth told Post media reporter Howard Kurtz. "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."
Brauchli told Kurtz he was "appalled" by the plan."It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase," Brauchli told Kurtz. 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."
Earlier this morning, Brauchili said in a staffwide e-mail that the newsroom would not participate in the first of the planned events - a dinner scheduled July 21 at the home of Katharine Weymouth. Brauchli,was named on the flier as one of the "Hosts and Discussion Leaders."
The offer - which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters - was 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.
Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/070209R
2 opmerkingen:
Oud vice minister Graig Roberts scheld het nog eens flink van zich af.Leest weer heerlijk weg.
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07032009.html
Hij heeft geen hoge pet op van de pers in de VS
Blijkbaar solliciteert hij ook niet naar het presidentschap:
''Once the American media is obviously a whorehouse, which it is, Americans might pull themselves out of their stupor and learn to recognize facts and to think for themselves.
But don’t hold your breath. From what I have seen, with few exceptions, Americans are as dumb and insouciant as they come. And they think they are the salt of the earth.''
Over Iraanse media spin zegt hij het volgende
''Ignorant “experts” made a great noise about the fact that 50 cities or towns had votes in excess of registered voters. Again, this is a demonstration of the total ignorance of “Iranian experts” . In Iran, voters can vote wherever they happen to be at the day of election. Vacationers, business people on travel, commuters, and the partial absence of distinct voting districts, can produce a vote count in excess of the local registered population.
The Guardian Council examined these differences, added them up, and noted that if every additional vote was fraudulent, the number was insufficient to affect the outcome.
The Guardian Council has agreed to post every vote count.
Did you learn of these facts from Fox News, CNN, the New York Times, or from the CIA and Mossad bloggers? Of course not. Every time “your” media opens its mouth lies jump out that serve the US government’s hegemonic propaganda. ''
En als we het toch over de pers overzee hebben....
Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22974.htm
''Following a testy exchange during Wednesday’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.
“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.
“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”''
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