They had an interesting discussion on Joe Scarborough's show yesterday with Carl Bernstein and Chuck Todd, about how reporters gather the news etc. Bernstein takes today's reporters to task for not hitting the bricks to collect the news, and says they're happy to sit in on pressers and shout questions at the press secretary and call that reporting. As Peter Daou notes, Todd got a bit defensive and refers to the pressers as "a show" but then backed off.
Take a look...
Meanwhile, you've got the Washington Post out there selling access to the movers and shakers of Washington. I know the newspaper industry is fighting to survive, but this is about as low as you can go on the ethics scale...
WashPost sells access, $25,000+ 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.
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." ...
"Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate," says the one-page flier. "Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. ... Bring your organization's CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders ...
Wow - imagine that... a lobbyist looking down their nose at the Post over questions of ethics.
BTW - the topic for the first "Salon"...? Health care reform and whether it's a good thing. UGH! Guess none of us will have the $$$$ to attend one of these to lobby for single payer, eh?
"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you?re knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."
Hillary Clinton - June 7, 2008
