Post publisher apologizes for paid dinner plan ($25,000 per head)

AP ^ | 07/05/09

[TigerLikesRooster]

Post publisher apologizes for paid dinner plan

Washington Post publisher apologizes for plan to hold paid dinners with officials, journalists

On Sunday July 5, 2009, 6:59 am EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Washington Post's publisher apologized to readers Sunday for a plan to charge business leaders and lobbyists for intimate dinner discussions with government officials and the newspaper's journalists.

A flier surfaced last week promoting a plan to charge $25,000 to sponsor one of a series of dinner parties that would include off-the-record conversations with Post journalists and access to Washington insiders. The series was canceled Thursday.

[poindexter]

One can only wonder how much of this has been going on before they got caught.

[TigerLikesRooster]

Probably every week.:-) Who knows? Without such extra revenue, WaPo might have been broke by now just like NYT.

[maggief]

WaPoGate

[2harddrive]

ONCE AGAIN, the government has been found to be selling itself to the highest biddders, aided and abetted by the Mighty Media Monolith. And yet we criticize prostitutes!

[angkor]

To paraphase publisher Katherine Wemouth’s ridiculous mea culpa:

“I’m ‘a Madame’, not a Madam. And this was to look like ‘a salon’, not a brothel.”

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

They might as well change their name to Government Media, this to go along with the new trend: Government Motors, Government Medical, etc.

[freekitty]

I bet she is still going to do it; if she hasn’t already.

[tiki]

I imagine that it happened but there was no written policy, just people who greased their palms regularly. I bet their financial institution wanted some proof for their cash flow so they wrote up a formal agreement.

[freekitty]

Obama and Co are worse liars than Bill and Hillary if you can believe that. They should be known as the “Liars Campaign”.

[angkor]

And also: "We were not selling the permanent affections of our employees for money, nor were were trafficking in human flesh to 'elite' Washington 'power brokers'. Rather, we intended to provide the intimate attentions of the Post's 'esteemed objective journalists' for only an hour or two, and in my lux and swanky downtown pad. What kind of perversions business those paying 'power brokers' and my flourish of strumpets team of 'esteemed objective journalists' were to conduct in the privacy of my living room is their own private business."

[xcamel]

Lots of CYA lies going on there...

[DieHard the Hunter]

Isn’t “Influence Peddling” a crime in the United States? A form of Racketeering? If so, what are its parameters? If not, shouldn’t it be?

[TigerLikesRooster]

In U.S., too many rackets making too much money these days. Rackets include pols. They become too big to be investigated and prosecuted, IMHO.

[libertylover]

Des-PIC-able!

[reg45]

Illinois style “Pay-to-Play” comes to Washington.

[Seaplaner]

Washington Post publisher apologizes for plan to hold paid dinners with officials, journalists

Translation:

All meetings between Obama officials and "news" media and lobbyists will continue to remain clandestine, or...ahem..."under-the-table" from now on.

.

[Godwin1]

The less interesting thing here is the venality and greed—or perhaps the financial desperation—of Post's senior management. The more interesting dimension is the seamless, interlocking connections between the Post and this Administration. The Post promised to deliver not only it's “journalists”, but also White House officials. And why not? After all, they are all on the same team, with the Post, like the AP and the major networks, serving as little more than an extension of the White House press operation. We are witnessing a marriage of government and media previously unknown outside totalitarian nations. Thank God for the internet

[TigerLikesRooster]

Yeah, they have virtual “WaPo Land” on Cyberspace. They can rub elbows there. To play “WaPo Land,” you have to buy minimal option for dress, shoes, and accessories. It will require 25,000 points, and each point costs a dollar for purchase.:-)

[tobyhill]

Too late. The Washington Post violated the Lobbyist Disclosure Act of 1995. They offered lobbyist contacts with high ranking White House officials that totaled over $6,000 and they weren’t registered to do so.