via Washington
Post
sells access, $25,000+ – Mike Allen – POLITICO.com
Washington
Post cancels lobbyist event amid uproar
By MIKE ALLEN & MICHAEL CALDERONE | 7/2/09
Washington
Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling
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 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
Post newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the
solicitation, Weymouth said in an email to the staff that "a
flier went out that was prepared by the Marketing department and
was never vetted by me or by the newsroom. Had it been, the flier
would have been immediately killed, because it completely misrepresented
what we were trying to do."
Weymouth
said the paper had planned a series of dinners with participation
from the newsroom “but with parameters such that we did not
in any way compromise our integrity. Sponsorship of events, like
advertising in the newspaper, must be at arm's length and cannot
imply control over the content or access to our journalists. At
this juncture, we will not be holding the planned July dinner
and we will not hold salon dinners involving the newsroom. “
She made
it clear however, that The Post, which lost $19.5 million
in the first quarter, sees bringing together Washington figures
as a future revenue source. “We do believe that there is
a viable way to expand our expertise into live conferences and
events that simply enhances what we do – cover Washington for
Washingtonians and those interested in Washington,” she said.
“ And we will begin to do live events in ways that enhance
our reputation and in no way call into question our integrity.”
Executive
editor Marcus Brauchli was as adamant as Weymouth in denouncing
the plan promoted in the flier. “You cannot buy access to
a Washington Post journalist,” Brauchli told POLITICO.
Brauchli was named on the flier as one of the salon’s "Hosts
and Discussion Leaders."
Brauchli
said in an interview that he understood the business side of the
Post planned on holding dinners on policy and was scheduled
to attend the July 21 dinner at Weymouth’s Washington home,
but he said he had not seen the material promoting it until today.
“The flier, and the description of these things, was not
at all consistent with the preliminary conversations the newsroom
had,” Brauchli said, adding that it was “absolutely
impossible” the newsroom would participate in the kind of
event described in the solicitation for the event.
"Underwriting
Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate,"
says the one-page flier. "Underwrite and participate in this
intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record
dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine
Weymouth. ... Bring your organization’s CEO or executive
director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration
and congressional leaders."
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