In the remake of the classic movie Indiscreet, Leslie-Anne Down accidentally appears in front of Robert Wagner with her face covered by a particularly bizarre mudpack. She says (from memory): “Can you just forget you ever saw me this way?” To which he responds: “I seriously doubt it.”
So it is with the latest escapade of the Washington Post. The paper sent invitations to lobbyists to bring their CEOs to a private soiree at the home of Post publisher Katherine Weymouth, at which they would not only “interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders” but “build crucial relationships with Washington Post news executives.” The cost: $25,000 for one; a cool quarter of a mil for a series.
One of the lobbyist recipients questioned the ethics and blew the whistle, whereupon everyone involved backed away, tossing the blame on a top marketing guy (who will soon be either unemployed or very well paid indeed). From media commentator Howard Kurtz:
Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said he was "appalled" by the plan. "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."
For WaPo phobes, this brings to mind the classic doggerel:
You cannot hope to bribe or twist thank God! The British journalist.
But seeing what the man will do unbribed, there's no occasion to.
-- Humbert Wolfe
The bright side is that seldom has the Post afforded so much pure pleasure to conservatives. I am among them, since it confirms my thesis that DC has turned so completely into a special interest state that it is tone deaf to its own corruption; how else could anyone in a newspaper think that this was within bounds?
And then there is something I once heard on sentencing day in federal court. The judge asked the defendant if he was sorry for his crime, and the answer was: “Oh yes, your honor; ever since I got caught I can’t sleep a wink.”
UPDATE: Editor & Publisher links to numerous reactions, including a funny video spoof.
Here is the flyier. Image from the Washington Examiner.
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