Pimpin' ain't easy

by: Carnacki

Thu Jul 02, 2009 at 10:56:29 AM EDT

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."

The offer - which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters - is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

And it's a turn of the times that a lobbyist is scolding The Washington Post for its ethical practices.

At least WaPo is finally being honest that it shills to the corporate world. This kind of access was usually free to lobbyists on the Georgetown cocktail circuit. Now that WaPo is admitting they're media whores, the only issue seems to be haggling over the price.

But for those who have followed the editorial pages of many newspapers, there's been no doubt why so many in the so-called "liberal media" always take the side of the powerful against the people. The powerful pro-coal lobby buys a lot of full page ads so in too many publications, the views of the people harmed by the coal industry - the Charleston Gazette and a few smaller papers being notable exceptions - are not heard.

I wonder how much the pro-coal side spent to have that factually inaccurate, pro-PaTH editorial placed in The Post?

Update:

For the record, if you're a lobbyist and you want access to West Virginia Blue, you sign up an account and post. If you want one of our writers or "editors" to hear your point of view, shoot us an email. It's free. We don't charge anyone to have access to us or the site. And taking out an ad on the site won't guarantee you favorable writing as the national Chamber of Commerce found out last year.