Post Publisher Cancels Plans for Off-the-Record 'Salons'

[brooklynite]

Source: Washington Post

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.

"Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. "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."

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."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

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Ah, the "overzealous aides" defense...

[msongs]

1. as if the washington post had integrity lololol nt

[DJ13]

2. There goes that money making opportunity

I guess they'll have to revert to actually reporting the news.

[MountainLaurel]

4. I wouldn't bet on it n/t

[tomm2thumbs]

3. vomitous

[Garbo 2004]

5. WaPo caught pimping. Let's call it what it is. nt

[JackRiddler]

6. "after learning that..." it was exposed all over the Internet, you mean.