Fri, Nov 27 2009
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Published July 02, 2009 09:23 pm - We can only imagine the uproar this week in The Washington Post’s newsroom when editors and reporters discovered an offer was circulating that would have played them like pawns. In our view: Pay to play doesn't work in newsroom We can only imagine the uproar this week in The Washington Post’s newsroom when editors and reporters discovered an offer was circulating that would have played them like pawns.
Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth, on Thursday, canceled plans for an exclusive gathering at her home that would cost lobbyists and other executives $25,000 a meal for off-the-record access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and some of the paper’s reporters and editors. Quicker than you could yell “retraction,” Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli explained that the fliers should never have gone out and they were never vetted. “You cannot buy access to a Washington Post journalist,” Brauchli told other media outlets. But apparently there were some on the marketing side of the paper who thought maybe they could. We expect someone at the Post might be looking for a new job today. And rightly so. Newspapers are multifaceted businesses that are expected to turn a profit via paper and advertising sales. But not by selling face time with a reporter or editor. People walk into our newsroom daily, many with a story they want to discuss, a letter they want published, or even a complaint. We make time for lobbyists and politicians, the same as we make time for high-school students, local coaches and those occasional souls who are down on their luck with nowhere to turn. There is no charge at the door. Nor are reporters or editors allowed to accept gifts. They are either returned to the giver or donated to charity. The suggestion of quid pro quo leaves a newsroom’s credibility up for debate. While the Post is doing everything in its power to convince its readers that this was simply a matter of the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing, considerable damage has been done to the reputation of what some consider one of the leading sources of news in the nation. The Post’s reporters shouldn’t have to pay the price for this folly. 
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