Coming This Sunday to Howard Kurtz's "Reliable Sources"

Some upstart from the marketing department - no doubt. There's value in promoting from within. You don't end up with idiots who are unfamiliar with your business who nevertheless feel like they're God's gift to your organization because the 'think outside the box'!

Let Palin and Limbaugh do the sixty-nine.

Sign on door to WP Executive Floor: Business as Usual. "We introduce, you discuss".

bring dan froomkin in to discuss it...
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Here's a clue -- Kurtz will not dare to mention the elephant in the room; that his boss Marcus Braucli was already scheduled to run the discussion in the "pay for access to the Post reporters and editors" ploy. In other words, he was well aware of what was going on, and now is trying to cover his own highly compensated butt by acting as if he has any integrity....

Let's see Froomkin, Pitney, Brock and anyone else with at least a semblance of an ethical compass. Kurtz would – and should – get b!tch-slapped clear into Tuesday. Even with the belated withdrawal of the "news" department.

Sure, the Post appears to be selling their services to the highest bidders - but at least the are serious and civil. Not like those filthy, cheeto eating bloggers.

Howard Kurtz the media critic - that's a funny one! Mr. Kurtz reminds me of the tobacco industry "scientists" who used to testify before congress about the link between tobacco and cancer being "inconclusive."

Michael-just a quick question. Aren't media critics actually supposed to you know, critique the media? Does Howard actually do that? What I see him doing most of the time is attacking bloggers.

Lets not forget that Howard Kurtz was one of Jeff Gannon's biggest defenders againts the DFH bloggers.

All I know is that if bloggers hadn't soiled the media landscape, this never would have happened.
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BTW, "For $25,000 to $250,000" is a level of specificity that is pretty hard to walk back. Will anyone believe that an overly-enthusiastic summer intern just decided to sell access to WaPo editors on his or her own?
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The joke about Reliable Sources is that Kurtz himself is up to his eyeballs in ethical conflicts. Hey, CNN, how about replacing Kurtz for this episode with someone who isn't employed by WaPo?

"For $25,000 to $250,000"
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FWIW, as soon as I figure out where in the spectrum it falls, I will be soliciting donations for the opportunity to laugh in Dana Milbank's face.

Max Baucus be not interested in th' underwriting opportunity? 'e must be already flush (bought an' paid fer) then, ri'?
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YARR!

Have Neal Gabler sit in for Kurtz.

I nominate Dan Froomkin to host "Reliable Sources."

It will never happen though, the corporate media cannot stand the scruitiny of honest criticism.

Meanwhile, "The Post" (along with the other bastions of "old media") continue to loose circulation and readers. Darn that google!

if this wasn't about beltway social lioness Katherine Weymouth (Post Publisher in whose home these meetings would be happening), Scherer and the rest of the media would be comparing her to everyone from Deborah Jean Palfrey to Sydney Biddle Barrows to Heidi Fleiss. I mean, its not everyday that you get to talk about "hostesses" charging people to participate in their "salons"....
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but don't expect those kinds of jokes to be made by anyone with mainstream credentials, because Weymouth will immediately be on the phone to the OWNERS of their publications, screaming bloody murder -- even though Weymouth is acting like a courtesan.

Shorter p_luk: Hostess Katherine Weymouth selling access in a salon invokes imagery of brothels. But it would be sexist of me to say so, so I will project my metaphor onto Scherer and then attack him for hypocritically NOT saying it.

excuse me, but I take ownership of the metaphor -- and it wasn't about sexism, it was about how inviolate Weymouth is among beltway journalists.
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I mean, does anyone seriously believe that Weymouth was unaware of the nature of the event that would be held in her own home? She's publisher of the Post, and she's bringing the executive editor of the Post into her home to "lead the discussion".
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This wasn't some "business office screw-up", this was something that was arranged with the full knowledge of the Publisher and Executive Editor (who, you will note, has a problem with "the language" used to describe the prostitution of the Post -- not the prostitution itself, but just the obvious way that the Post is selling its wares.)

Eh, The Post has been Washington's second-most prolific business whore (after Congress, of course) for a very long time. Now we know how much it charges.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html
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"Washington Post cancels lobbyist event amid uproar"

The Post's cancellation of these salons should not end this inquiry. Let's not forget that, in April, Howie Kurtz wrote admiringly about The Atlantic dinners which were also corporate-sponsored and attended by Emmanuel, Geithner, Bernanke and Petraeus, for starters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/26/AR2009042602297.html?sid=ST2009042602321

My question is whether the journalists are paid to attend these corporate-sponsored events. The regulars at The Atlantic dinners included David Brooks and Maureen Dowd of the New York Times, Gene Robinson and Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post, NBC's David Gregory, ABC's George Stephanopoulos, PBS's Gwen Ifill, the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum, former Time managing editor Walter Isaacson and staffers from Bradley's Atlantic and National Journal, including Ron Brownstein, Andrew Sullivan and Jonathan Rauch.

I remember when David Broder got caught taking those speaking fees from the healthcare industry which seemed to be no big deal at the Post. Who else is taking fees from industry?

I really hope that's a joke about the Michael Jacksosn coverage on Reliable Sources. But I fear it's not. Wow. Just wow.