Washington Post Flap: How They Played It

This is mildly interesting, but one might think that media observation comes dangerously close to Media Criticism, KT!

Link to below is the Obit for the Washington Post. They are done. And I love this part.
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FCP pointed out to the Post spokeswoman that unless the company repudiated this idea altogether by the end of the day, the company's brand would be dead.
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“I don't appreciate that kind of talk,” said Kris Coratti, director of communications for Washington Post Media.
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“You shouldn't appreciate it,” FCP replied. But the failure to repudiate this idea will be fatal:
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http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/blog/washington-post-rip
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Problem is they did repudiate they made it worse by lying. It's never the crime its the lying about having committed in the first place that ruins your cred.

This is a nice reminder that in our tendency to caricature corporate executives as Ravenous Wolves preying upon innocent citizens, we forget that a more accurate portayal is of incompetent Circus Clowns who are nevertheless able to afford buying themselves out of the consequences of their stupidity.

That access is a powerful thing. Somebody must want to pay for such a valuable thing. By the way what was Howie Kurtz writing about will Mike Allen was eating his lunch?
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Kurtz was writing about whether black female can cover Michele Obama objectively without identifying with her too much. I am thinking maybe the black female media types can handle their assignments for less than say, $25,000 a pop.

Me yesterday:
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'!
The NYT Today:
The Post recently hired a marketing executive, Charles Pelton, to begin organizing conferences, and executives said the flier came from his group. He did not return calls seeking comment.

If the WP could have kept this under radar, I wonder how many Obama officials would have shown up? After seeing those salaries I would venture to guess quite a few.

Of all the jaw-dropping (yeah, I know, I'm naive) statements the WaPo has emitted as a result of getting caught, the Ombudsman's characterization of the mess as a "Public Relations Disatster" is, for me, the jaw-droppingest. There are folks at the WaPo - including publisher Weymouth - who did not recognize that this would leave what little credibility the Post has left (post Froomkin/Bolton/Beck) in tatters and this ethical blindness is a PR prob? All I can say is WTF - it's like a Catholic Bishop characterizing the sexual abuse scandal as a marketing problem. It's clear what the Post is selling - access/stenography and distorted 'conventional wisdom'. I won't be sad to see them go.

Key nugget in NYTimes article.
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It was not entirely clear Thursday how the salon idea had developed, how much people inside the company knew about it or who planned to attend. Soon after the news broke, Marcus W. Brauchli, executive editor of The Post, sent a memo to his staff saying that “the language in the flier and the description of the event preclude our participation.”
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In an interview, Mr. Brauchli said he had intended to go to the dinner and knew the company was seeking paying sponsors. But he said he did not see the promotional flier, or know that the event might have a single sponsor. Invitations to the event stated it was “underwritten by Kaiser Permanente.”

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So what it really boils down to is that they just got caught. Brauchli knew the basics of the situation but didn't see a need to ask about specifics of the arrangement according to him. Kind of surprising for a guy who came out yesterday so forcefully about journalism ethics. You would think if he were planning to attend these salons that he might have asked at least a few questions about the set up.
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Now honestly I think he did and he knew full well what he deal was. He just didn't expect someone to be fool enough to tell the truth on a flier. But for that flier being discovered by GOPolitico does anyone really doubt that these salons would have happened and exactly what was described on those fliers would have happened? Because I just came into some swamp land down here in Florida that I am looking to unload.
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I still look forward to hearing the rightous indignation from #dickwhisper though.

How 'bout if you can recruit Eric Holder for a little 'chat'....

Karen - the WaPo wanted to run (to steal a Balloon Juice commenter's phrase) a message parlor - if you want to compete w/ that, I'd suggest happy endings.

KT:
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Kudos for posting about this debacle. I didn't think that you'd do it, but you've proved once again that you truly are a real political journalist.

'think outside the box'
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People, it's all about the optics. We as a organization are looking for sustainable, sustainability that can only occur when our core principles dictate that we operate in the organic space that allows for the organic growth of profits for our stakeholders. So let's leverage this to our advantage. Other wise a lot of you will be choosing to seek outside employment opportunities.

Why don't we make ours a saloon. That way I would never have to go out in this Houston heat.

"People, it's all about the optics. We as a organization are looking for sustainable, sustainability that can only occur when our core principles dictate that we operate in the organic space that allows for the organic growth of profits for our stakeholders. So let's leverage this to our advantage. Other wise a lot of you will be choosing to seek outside employment opportunities."
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Is this a threat of some sort?
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If so, I would sincerely appreciate clarification, as:
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1) My eyes are shot
2) There is nothing organic about what I'm doing now

I am looking to see how Reliable Sources handles this subject on Sunday. Will Howie interview himself or will he have his buddy Milbank along?

Thanks for posting this KT.

I second Gunny's saloon proposal, as soon as we can patent tasty virtual beer.
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I would just like to point out that public higher education has been selling itself to the highest bidder for the last 25 years (at least) and no one gave a rat's patootie. When corporations pay for research projects, they are buying not only the results but the loyalties of faculty and graduate student researchers. Pepsi "owns" our campus; we have to smuggle in Coca-Cola.
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Monetizing Swampland would be easy -- sell sponsorship of guest blogger spots for a nice price. Judging by my current page, Microsoft might be interested in moving its content for sidebar to main frame.

KT:

If you could provide a secure registration system we could submit our bank account info and Time could compensate us on a per-comment basis.
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Or, in Trollspeak, MONETIZATION ACCOMPLISHED!

What I want to know is at what point during the "dinner" Weymouth would mention that one of the best ways to "influence the debate" in DC was with full pages advertisements in the city's most influential newspaper. Before dessert?

Like they don't already know that; my daily WaPo is full of 'em. The "salon" sounds like a much more efficient way to peddle access and influence. Tonier, too!

[...] journalism, pay-for-chat plan, selling access, Swampland, Washington Post | Leave a Comment  This nugget about the Washington Post as reported by Karen Tumulty of TIME’s Swampland seems to explain [...]

Serious question KT. No snark is intended here. How do journalists cover the conflict of interest issue. In my mind, it is too often understated, but in a sense understandable because so many news organs are now part of conglomerates that have tentacles into everything.
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ABC/Disney has a massive conflict of interest on copyright and piracy issues. GE of course has a big government contracting unit, including defense spending. Now one could argue (although I would disagree) that all journalists are above being soft on their corporate overlords, but should NBC for example have run a disclaimer when their embedded reporters were breathlessly cheerleading the war that would create a need for more products from GE to be replenished by the DoD?
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I am not trying to be confrontational here, just honestly wondering about this. I also think that GE (for it's size) has been woefully under investigative reported. I really don't expect NBC to do it, but why don't other news orgs do it for them? Is there an unwritten quid pro quo? If ABC went after GE, would they worry that Chris Hanson would go undercover at Disneyland?

Wonder if I can figure out a way to monetize it...
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Absolutely. All that fact-checking, proof-reading, story inspiration and content added that we do has to be worth something, right?
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I'll be expecting my check in the mail.