YaY! Washington Post cancels lobbyist event amid uproar

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...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html
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Anarcho-Capitalist, ANCAPS Forum, Ancapolis

Washington Post Not the Only Paper Selling Access

As they wipe the egg off their face, Washington Post executives are probably wondering why they got slammed so badly for selling access to Washington bigwigs and Post reporters at "salons" at the publisher's home. At least two other news organizations—the Wall Street Journal and the Economist—are doing much the same thing, Politico reports.

For a few thousand bucks, the Economist arranges intimate, off-the-record meetings with world leaders. The Journal, meanwhile, is charging $7,500 for a November gathering including the paper’s editors, Tony Blair, Rupert Murdoch, and Arne Duncan. That event is at least on the record, potentially benefiting readers. But in March the Journal arranged an off-record talk by Larry Summers, at the White House, as part of a $5,000-a-head conference.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24496.html
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Anarcho-Capitalist, ANCAPS Forum, Ancapolis