WAPO Solicits Lobbyist Cash For Access To Obama Officials, Congress, And Its Staff

Thursday, July 02, 2009

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WAPO Solicits Lobbyist Cash For Access To Obama Officials, Congress, And Its Staff

The Washington Post decided to solicit lobbyists and other interested parties to fork over between $25,000 and $250,000 per head for what it described as an 'underwriting opportunity'.

As the WAPO's marketing flier detailed, this 'opportunity' involved off-the-record, "non-confrontational" access to "those powerful few" - Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors - at private salons held at publisher Katherine Weymouth's home.

This only surfaced because a health care lobbyist released the flier to the Politico, because the lobbyist felt it was a conflict for the Washington Post to try and charge for private access to its health care reporting and editorial staff.

Once they got caught with their pants down, publisher Weymouth quickly engaged in some damage control:

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.”

(Translation: "This was a great idea that would have made us a lot of money if we could have just kept it quiet. Next time, we'll vet the marketing list better to make sure nobody opens their mouth and makes us look bad." - rm)

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.

So in other words, Brauschli knew all about it and was fine with actuallyperforming...he just didn't like the advertising. Especially the way it looked when it went public.

And obviously, in spite of what he said, you can buy access to a WAPO journalist.All the flier did was advertise the price.

Now, I can actually understand where Madame Weymouth's head was at. Many of the WAPO's newsroom employees ceased to be actual journalists a long time ago, and they cost a lot of money. Expenses have to be met, and after all, times in the biz being what they are, a number of them might very well be at work on certain corners in Georgetown to make ends meet if Weymouth didn't provide them with a paycheck. There's a certain twisted logic in using them to help shake a little cash out of thejohns lobbyists.

But my main interest lies in the Obama officials and congressmen - 'the powerful few' - who agreed to participate in this scheme and show up. Obviously, Weymouth had a few big names lined up, if she charged up to a quarter mill for an entrance fee. People like to get their money's worth.

So, who were these 'powerful few' who agreed to appear? And what were they supposed to get out of it? Was it a tradeoff for favorable coverage in the paper? Or was it something as mundane as part of the take?


To me, that's the real story. Unfortunately, so far it's missing in action, and it will likely stay that way.