Free Republic

Deals offered by the Washington Post For $25K, Boswell will let Manny Acta tattoo a Nat's W on his ass. For $500K, Charles Krauthammer will write a series of columns advocating war with a country of your choosing. For only $10,000 the WaPo will review your stimulus package and they won't mention that it promotes socialism! For $25k, we'll have Woodward write a book on you. For $250k, it will actually be complimentary. For $5000, WaPo will let you write the same psychopathic op-ed http://tr.im/qD3b that you wrote in WSJ 3wks ago http://tr.im/qD3y For $200K Katharine Graham will rise from...

The news cycle these days is like time-lapse photography. Stories are born, flower and pass out of sight again in a matter of hours. For that matter, the Washington Post's "Salon" program didn't last much longer than that. Blink, or take a day off from the computer, and you've missed it. Here, via The Examiner, is the invitation that the Washington Post sent to lobbyists for companies in the health care industries; ...: The mind boggles: the Post wants lobbyists to bring "your organization's CEO or executive director" to a "salon" at the home of Post publisher Katharine Weymouth. If...

Washington Post publisher 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 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...

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 Washington Post has long prided itself on its access to the capital's elite. Now, it appears, the paper is willing to sell that access. In a flier circulated to Beltway lobbyists, the Post touted a "salon" program which gives "exclusive access" to "Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds" for between $25,000 and $250,000. (View an image of the flier.) White House officials said privately Thursday that the administration had no idea that the Post was peddling access to its officials. The first event, entitled "Health-Care Reform: Better or Worse for Americans" is...

The Washington Post is marketing to institutional executives and lobbyists dinners with congressmen, Obama officials and its own reporters, according to Politico.com. The "salons" will be held at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. Price for access ranges from $25,000 to $250,000, according to the flier. So much for the role of watchdog. At least now, there is no excuse for doubting everything you read. The new service was made known to the general public by a health-care lobbyist offended by the policy. The flier baldly said the dinners would provide access to the paper's “health care reporting...

It was fast. Very fast. At 8.04am, Politico's Mike Allen publishes an article: "For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" -- Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper's own reporters and editors." At 10.33am, Washington Post editor Marcus Brauchli sends out an email:

WashPost sells access, $25,000+ By: Mike Allen July 2, 2009 08:04 AM EST For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors. The astonishing offer is detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health-care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he feels it’s a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff." The offer—which essentially...

Following a Walter Cronkite editorial report during the Tet Offensive that the Vietnam War was unwinnable, President Lyndon Johnson is reported to have said, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost middle America." Today one of President Obama's "propaganda arms, the Washington Post complained about the size of the federal deficit." It warned the President that a credible solution to the deficit must be developed or the economy will stagnate. Wow the Washington Post disagreeing with Obama. Is this President Obama's "losing Uncle Walter" moment? Or has it begun to snow in hell? But no fear because David Axelrod may have...

Are Christian missionaries “pernicious”? The Washington Post seems to think so. You know the word “pernicious,” which Webster’s defines as “highly injurious or destructive.” Webster’s then offers these synonyms for “pernicious,” including, “noxious,” “deleterious,” and “detrimental.” As is so typical of the Post, and of the MSM in general, this little bit of bigotry was a throwaway, a gratuitous dig–-a dig, of course, that reveals much about The Post’s underlying mentality. In a review of a book about a botanical garden in Hawaii, Carolyn See, a longtime contributor to the Post’s “Style” section, includes this nasty little aside about newcomers...

Time Magazine's Joe Klein has a piece on Time's Swampland blog decrying the editorial page of the Washington Post:The Washington Post's increasingly strident op-ed page offers a double-barreled neocon assault on President Obama's Iran position today by Charles Krauthammer and Paul Wolfowitz.The fascist left brooks no deviation from the party line. The Post is still a liberal paper, but because it is not a mirror image of the New York Times in that paper's undying love of all things Obama, the moonbats are turning their sights on The Post with probably the cruelest insult to a liberal newspaper:hellslittlestangel Says:Friday, June...

The Washington Post’s Robin Givhan goes all gooey for Michelle Obama again at the top of the Style section on Friday, comparing the First Lady to Clair Huxtable, or as explained by the caption under their pictures: "As portrayed by Phylicia Rashad, Clair Huxtable was an accomplished yet down-to-earth figure. In Michelle Obama, the nation now has another symbol of success and style." Givhan writes with an admiration so dazzled that you worry she’s going to faint: She serves as a symbol of middle-class progress, feminist achievement, affirmative-action success and individual style. And she has done all this on the...

In a move sure to ignite the left-wing blogosphere, washingtonpost.com columnist Dan Froomkin (author of the "White House Watch" blog) has been let go by the news organization, POLITICO hears. In so many words, Froomkin was told that his blog had essentially run its course. Froomkin's work for the Post has, at times, been amongst the most popular, but he has also ruffled some feathers, including former Post ombudsman Deb Howell, who used a column to field complaints over the labeling of Froomkin's "highly opinionated and liberal" "White House Briefing" column, which was subsequently changed to "White House Watch." Conservative...

The liberal-leaning Washington Post, often noted as reflecting U.S. policy, editorialized Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama’s demand that Israel stop all building for Jews in Judea and Samaria may leave him without Israel as an ally and without Arab support. The daily traditionally has taken a harsh view of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria. “The problem is that no Israeli government -- not Mr. Netanyahu's, not even one led by the current opposition -- is likely to agree to a total construction ban,” The Washington newspaper stated in its editorial. “By insisting on one, the administration risks bogging...

Tiller assassination: Why haven't the media begun using the term "assassination" with regard to the Tiller killing? Unlike the military guy killed in Arkansas, Tiller wasn't murdered in a random, drive-by fashion. He was tracked to his place of worship and assassinated. Are the media wary of using the term "assassination"? Ed O'Keefe: I've seen several media reports that use the term "assassination." _______________________ Dunn Loring, VA: Why does the Post have numerous articles about the killing of an abortion provider but gives much less coverage to the murder of a US soilder by a Muslim "extremist" in Arkansas? Ed...

"When media executives look at their shrinking audiences, they rarely attribute the decline to their liberal bias in covering the news. But recent developments at the Washington Post demonstrate that a return to fair coverage attracts readers. Since Katharine Weymouth became publisher more than a year ago, and she named Marcus Brauchli, a former Wall Street Journal editor, executive editor in September, the paper has been making an honest effort to be fair. Wash. Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth Hit jobs against Bush administration programs and Republicans in general have virtually vanished. Instead, the paper presents issues fairly. No longer is...

News that the Boston Globe could shutter its doors any day now, leaving the city without its most famous paper, prompted some reporter to ask White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs whether there would be a bailout for the newspaper industry. Gibbs said no: "I don’t know what, in all honesty, government can do about it.” But then he added that, "(Obama) believes there has to be a strong free press" and that the President has expressed "concern and sadness" over the state of the industry. Ding-Ding-Ding. Folks, a newspaper bailout is coming. Maybe not in time to save the...

U.S. newspaper businesses face the possibility of "unending losses" and Berkshire Hathaway wouldn't invest in the industry "at any price," Chairman Warren Buffett told shareholders on Saturday. "They were the ultimate business 30 or 40 years ago," Buffett explained at the company's annual meeting. "They lost their essential nature." Berkshire owns a large stake in the Washington Post Co. (WPO) and owns the Buffalo News. The Buffalo News is trying to develop a business model that allows it to make a little money, with the help of its unions, Buffett said. The Washington Post has other attractive businesses, but it...

The cliffhangers include 3 Sun staffers fired by phone as they covered an Orioles game -- to be blogged live by fellow reporters right there in the press booth. Oy vey.

Standard & Poor's on Friday said it may cut its ratings on the Washington Post Co, citing increasingly negative trends in the company's newspaper and magazine businesses. The rating warning came after the Washington Post swung to a quarterly loss because of restructuring and buyout charges and reported a 33 percent drop in advertising revenue at its namesake newspaper. [Snip] S&P said it is concerned that worsening revenue trends will continue over the intermediate term in the company's newspapers and magazines. [Snip] S&P said it will also review pressures in the broadcasting business and growth prospects in the company's education...

The Washington Post Co. swung to a loss for the second time in less than a year, as the company's first-quarter earnings were dragged down by losses in its newspaper and magazine divisions and expenses in its education division.... The newspaper division reported an operating loss of $53.8 million caused by steep fall-offs in advertising, which are being felt across the industry. Print advertising revenue at The Post plummeted 33 percent in the first three months of this year, compared to the same period last year, and revenue at The Post's online properties -- chiefly, Washingtonpost.com -- dropped 8 percent...

The Washington Post Co. lost money in the first quarter, as advertising revenue fell 33 percent at the namesake newspaper and the company's education and cable TV businesses couldn't make up the difference. Washington Post stock slid $61.09, or 15 percent, to $357.50 in midday trading Friday after the earnings report. The publisher, whose properties also include Newsweek magazine and Kaplan education services, lost $19.2 million, or $2.04 per share, compared with a profit of $38.8 million, or $4.08 per share, in the year-ago quarter. The newspaper division reported an operating loss of $54 million. And to punctuate that unit's...

The Homeland Security Department is dropping some newspaper and magazine subscriptions to save money. The agency has told its employees to cancel subscriptions to general interest newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post and to magazines such as Newsweek and Time by April 27. Future subscriptions will have to be authorized in advance. The department says employees will still have access to news because most publications can be found online on an in-house Web site.

The New York Times won five Pulitzer Prizes yesterday, including one for uncovering the prostitution scandal that forced Eliot L. Spitzer (D) to resign as New York governor, while Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson captured the prize for commentary for his writing about the campaign that led to Barack Obama's election....

How the CNN & WP Legitimize murdering little chidren (by racist Arabs / Islamic bigots) on the basis of their origin - "occupation" crap   April, 2009   Regardless of the facts that most Palestinian Arabs are children or grandchildren of immigrants from surrounding middle eastern countries, the term "occupation" has been used by Arab leaders to wage genocidal wars since the 1960's, never mind that the racist attacks on Jews started long before that 1960's occupation excuse, in the 1920's in particular (with clear declarations of "driving all Jews into the sea, "Itbach al Yahud" - AKA Kill Jews, wiping...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The New York Times unveiled plans on Thursday to eliminate several weekly sections of the newspaper in the latest cost-cutting move at the prestigious but financially troubled daily. The Washington Post, meanwhile, announced a sweeping editorial reorganization at the newspaper and details of its plan to merge its currently separate print and online operations into a single newsroom. The Times said it was doing away with several weekly sections "in a bid to save millions of dollars" in ink, paper and freelance reporter costs, absorbing them into other parts of the newspaper. On the chopping board are...

The controversial cartoon by syndicated cartoonist Pat Oliphant that appeared on the New York Times and the Washington Post websites last month, and was also used by other American newspapers, has since been reproduced on neo-Nazi websites worldwide. Jewish groups and others criticized the March 25 cartoon as “hideously anti-Semitic� and slammed mainstream American papers for running it. Oliphant depicted a woman carrying a baby being pushed off a cliff by a goose-stepping headless figure holding a Star of David with sharp fangs. The cartoon has also now been reproduced, with the caption “Zionist Nazism,� on the website of the Lebanese terrorist...

If you’re an editor at the Washington Post, don’t get too comfy at your desk. Because your bosses may be getting ready to move you. A wide-ranging editorial reorganization is afoot at the paper, and staffers are busy exchanging whatever details they can pick up. But they’re hard to come by. Several top editors confirmed that the plan is coming soon but get touchy when pushed on details. “I think people in the newsroom are going to be quite happy with the choices of the people who are going to be leading the paper,” says Peter Perl, a top newsroom...

A liberal pillar of the media is taking a decidedly conservative position. The Washington Post says in an editorial that the wealthy already are pulling their weight when it comes to taxes. “In 2006, the top 20 percent of earners paid 70 percent of all federal taxes. On average, they paid 26 percent of their income to the government,” the editorial states. The numbers are particularly powerful for the richest of the rich – the top 1 percent of taxpayers. They account for 28 percent of all taxes, handing over 31 percent of their income to the government. Meanwhile, the...

The Washington Post newspaper will follow a money-losing 2008 by losing "substantial money" in 2009 and will continue to cut costs, Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Graham said in a letter to shareholders included in the company's annual report released yesterday. The Post Co. newspaper division -- which is dominated by the flagship paper but also includes the Everett (Wash.) Herald, Express and a number of smaller papers -- reported a $24.9 million operating loss last year. As a whole, The Post Co. -- which also owns the Kaplan education company, Cable One cable company, six television stations, Newsweek, Slate...

NEW YORK, March 26 (Reuters) - Washington Post Co (WPO.N) plans to offer a new round of buyouts in 2009 to employees at its namesake, money-losing newspaper, according to a memo obtained by Reuters on Thursday. The buyouts, which the Post will offer to newsroom, production and circulation employees, is aimed at cutting costs at the paper, the memo said. The Post, like other U.S. newspapers, has been hurt by declining advertising revenue. Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth, whom the memo said announced the plan to the paper's employees, was not immediately available for comment. The memo did not specify...

he Washington Post will stop publishing a business section six days out of the week and move business news to the front section of the paper at a time when finance stories dominate world headlines. The decision, which the Post's editors explained in a memo obtained by Reuters, means that the paper will save money on newsprint when newspaper advertising revenue is plunging.

The Washington Post has plans to fold its daily business section into the A section, according to sources at the paper. Staffers will be meeting shortly, and I expect an announcement soon. Will update when more information is available. UPDATE: Staffers have now been notified of the changes in the business section and other parts of the paper in a memo obtained by POLITICO. From Monday through Saturday, business coverage will now run in an expanded A section that includes National and International News, Economic & Business section, a Washington Business page, the Fed page, and Editorial and Op-Ed pages....

Mark Sanford doesn’t want his state to be tangled up in the strings attached to the money President Obama’s so-called “stimulus” bill is bringing to his state. His objections are grounded in conservative principle, so it’s natural that the Washington Post is attacking him. The problem -- as Sanford explained in my interview with him last week -- is that a large portion of the “stimulus” money requires increases in state payments such as unemployment benefits, and those increases have to continue even after the initial federal funding runs out. In state terms, this “annualizes” -- i.e., permanently grafts onto...

At the top of the 12PM EST hour of MSNBC news coverage on Tuesday, anchor David Shuster spoke with Washington Post reporter Keith Richburg about the recent divide between Rush Limbaugh and RNC Chair Michael Steele: "Following the latest Republican Party civil war. A complete about-face by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, after calling Rush Limbaugh's show 'ugly' and 'incendiary.' Steele's now apologized in the face of a withering attack from the radio host." Richburg later observed: "You know, it's fascinating. It's like the circular firing squad. I mean, maybe this is what Rush had in mind when he...

Hush all you sniveling bailout hating troublemakers. Just shut up, you don't need the money. That is the message from Washington Post personal finance commentator Michelle Singletary. In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Obama declared that he was going to "speak frankly and directly." That's what I want to do as well. I want to speak frankly and directly to the many people who have written to me complaining that they aren't directly benefiting from the federal government's efforts to resuscitate our gasping economy. The sniveling sentiments of these people come down to one question:...

Remember how during the run up to the election, all the left pundits and talking heads and their compatriots in the Old Media said that no white person would vote for Barack Obama? Well, despite the singular fact that Barack Obama convincingly won the popular vote in a country that sees a majority of its voters are white, the Old Media is still insisting that all southerners are slavery-loving, neo-confederates that are no different than they were in 1860.

The Washington Post Co. earnings fell 77 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2007, as a large impairment charge drove down net income. The Post Co. reported fourth-quarter net income of $18.8 million ($2.01 per share) on revenue of $1.16 billion, compared with net income of $82.9 million ($8.71) on revenue of $1.13 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. The company's newspaper division, which includes the flagship Washington Post, reported a $14.4 million operating loss for the fourth quarter and a $192.7 million operating loss for all of 2008, nearly half...

Michael Steele, who was recently elected chairman of the Republican National Committee, paid a Maryland company run by his sister more than $37,000 for work related to his 2006 Senate campaign, a payment that Mr. Steele’s spokesman said Saturday was entirely appropriate. The spokesman issued a statement in response to an accusation included in a confidential federal court document that Mr. Steele’s sister had done no work to earn the payment. Vickie E. LeDuc, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney’s office in Maryland, said Saturday that the office had unintentionally given the document to The Washington Post, which first...

Following weeks of reports that the Washington Post might kill its 16-page Book World Sunday section, the paper confirmed the action on Wednesday. The book review section, created by the Post in the 1960s and revived two decades later, will migrate to two sections in the paper for a total of 12 pages of coverage. “We will end Book World’s run as a stand-alone print section but will revamp and rebrand our books section online as Book World,” said the paper (NYSE:WPO) in a memo sent around to colleagues. Starting Feb. 22, book reviews will shift to the Style &...

Barack Obama visited the Washington Post to meet the editorial board and national staff, but his tour of the 5th floor newsroom nearly stopped the presses. Staff writers, photographers, editors and employees from other departments lined the hallway after word spread that the President-elect would be walking through the newroom. “There goes our journalistic objectivity,” one reporter quipped, as people traded stories and pictures.

Michael Calderone at Politico passes along that Barack Obama arrived to cheers at the Washington Post headquarters in downtown DC, just blocks north of the White House, and he quoted a "priceless pool report" by Helene Cooper, the newly appointed White House reporter for the New York Times: After three and a half hours at his transition office, PEOTUS obama took another 6 minute ride through washington, arriving at 157 pm at the nondescript soviet-style building at 15th and L street that houses the washington post. Around 100 people – Post reporters perhaps? – awaited PEOTUS's arrival, cheering and bobbing...

The Washington Post once celebrated itself for investigative journalism on politicians. Now, enthusing about them erotically is satisfaction enough, apparently. The paper on Christmas Day reported on President-elect Barack Hussein Obama’s exercise regime. Star struck reporter Eli Zaslow wrote of His Most High Excellency, ”the sun glinted off chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games.” Obama has gone to the gym for about 90 minutes a day, for at least 48 days in a row, Zaslow added. Contrast this — columnist Michelle Malkin requests — with the...

Yesterday I spent a wonderful Christmas Day with family. Then, sometime after opening gifts my brother showed me this story in the Washington Post: As Duties Weigh Obama Down, His Faith in Fitness Only IncreasesBy Eli Saslow Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, December 25, 2008; Page A01 Being elected president forces a man to take inventory of his life, so Barack Obama has trimmed his schedule to the bare essentials. He's not in the White House yet, but gone are the hours he once spent reading novels, watching television and obsessing over the daily transactions of Chicago's sports teams. He...

Here’s a textbook definition of bias by story placement in a newspaper. On Christmas Eve, the Washington Post placed the release of the Obama’s transition team’s report on contacts with Gov. Rod Blagojevich on page A3 – headlined "Obama Report Clears Dealings with Blagojevich." Centered right underneath the headline in this four-column story was a gray two-column box with a sidebar headlined in capitals "OBAMA ATTENDS SERVICE FOR GRANDMOTHER." But on Christmas Day, this Obama story was on Page One of the Post: "As Duties Weigh Obama Down, His Faith in Fitness Only Increases." The December 25 front-pager, written by...

Don’t miss out on this historic opportunity to welcome the new First Family to the White House! Your personalized welcome message will appear on washingtonpost.com through February 20th and in a special Classified section running in the keepsake Inauguration Day issue of The Washington Post. Be a part of history—place your message now!

WaPo: 'Obama Worked to Distance Self From Blagojevich Early On' By Michael M. Bates (Bio | Archive) December 12, 2008 - 10:42 ET Several mainstream media accounts suggest that about the only thing Barack Obama and Rod Blagojevich have in common is they both live in Illinois. Today at the Washington Post's Web site, for example, we learn that "Obama Worked to Distance Self From Blagojevich Early On." The article begins by noting that the Illinois governor, unlike other major state Democratic politicians, wasn't allowed to address this year's national convention. There was at least one good reason for that,...

A week after Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell agreed with readers who saw “a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama” in the paper's campaign coverage, Howell this Sunday admitted she voted for Obama and “bet” that so did “most” in the Post's newsroom: I'll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo.

Thousands of conservatives and even some moderates have complained during my more than three-year term that The Post is too liberal; many have stopped subscribing, including more than 900 in the past four weeks. It pains me to see lost subscribers and revenue, especially when newspapers are shrinking. Conservative complaints can be wrong: The mainstream media were not to blame for John McCain's loss; Barack Obama's more effective campaign and the financial crisis were.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a weekend article, the ombudsman for the Washington Post admitted that the liberal newspaper had a bias for pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama during the elections. The paper followed the article with a report on how the President-elect would overturn "ideologically offensive" pro-life policies. On Sunday, Deborah Howell admitted that readers of her paper "have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama." "My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts," she admitted. Howell's internal examination...