WaPo Ombudsman Calls His Newspaper A Dirty Whore, Basically
Recently the Washington Post has taken a beating for attempting to sell access to its newsroom via fancy, elistist “salons.” The New York Times has been positively giddy over it. Now the Post’s ombudsman has spoken.
In a piece that ran in Sunday’s edition of the Post, Andrew Alexander essentially took the paper to the woodshed in that oh so politely stern ombudsman way.
Historically at quality newspapers such as The Post, a firewall exists between the business and news departments to ensure editorial integrity and independence. The Post has internal “Standards and Ethics” guidelines that stress the importance of newsroom neutrality.
The first line says: “This newspaper is pledged to avoid conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict of interest, wherever and whenever possible.” Later, it states the newspaper “is committed to disclosing to its readers the sources of the information in its stories to the maximum possible extent.”
But the salon dinners ran counter to the spirit of both. By having outside underwriters, The Post was effectively charging for access to its newsroom personnel. Reporters or editors could easily be perceived as being in the debt of the sponsors. And by promising participants that their conversations would be private, those attending would be assured a measure of confidentiality that the news department typically opposes.
Like many newspapers, The Post is losing money and seeking new streams of revenue. The idea of sponsored events seemed attractive because other news organizations have convened them. Big events, like seminars or conferences, can be lucrative, although the potential to be realised from 11 dinners would be comparatively small.
The “salon dinner” concept was a throwback to when Katharine Graham, as publisher, hosted private dinner parties for power brokers — but on her own dime.
Oh snap! Right as we started reading his piece we wondered if Alexander would get in a “this would’ve never happened on Katherine Graham’s watch” dig at the paper’s current leadership, and he so did.
Now, we fully expect there to be at a half-dozen more “the Washington Post is evil” articles from the New York Times in the next week. Don’t disappoint us Pinch!
A Sponsorship Scandal At The Post [Washington Post]
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
I've been following this, but oh man, I didn't know the guy mostly responsible for this - the Conferences & Events manager - only started working there in May.
It's gonna be a looong summer for him.
@The Cajun Boy: I'd love to know what Nick Guido Denton would have to say about this whole commenting situation.
*sigh.* I miss that guy.
@MisterHippity: Shit. I give up. I guess urls don't automatically become hyperlinks in comments any more?
@The Cajun Boy: Gosh. Sent you a message.
Glib and Bitchy
@MisterHippity: Oops ... I fucked up the link. Let me try that link again: http://gawker.com/258203/final-thoughts-about-my-tenure-and-the-w...
@The Cajun Boy: I don't think Gawker ever had a realy one. But Alex Balk pretended to be the ombudsman once, in this very memorable post: http://gawker.com/news/the-gawker-ombudsman/final-thoughts-about-my-tenure-and-the-w...258203.php
@Glib and Bitchy: Yep...that's it. WHAT A BARGAIN!
And might I add, I love the "Glib and Bitchy" commenter name. May I ask who you were prior to Denton's "glib and bitchy" comment last week?
As I recall, sponsorships were going for $25,00 each, or 11 for $250,000. Buy 10 groups of reporters and editors, get one free!
Glib and Bitchy
@MisterHippity: Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Gawk have one very briefly at some point? Or maybe that was Deadspin.
Can I be the Gawker Ombudsman? I have an idea for my first piece already ...
@The Cajun Boy: Hey! First work out that Herpes thing. Priorities!
Iwillnotauditionforastar
@MisterHippity: Thank you Mister Hippity. The last piece of my plan in global domination was knowing Gawker preferred php. I shall now get my script monkeys tasked to re-engineering it so my funder, the great William Gates may co-opt this newsie thing and promote Volaceraptor II O/S.
Iwillnotauditionforastar
HEADLINE WIN.
@The Cajun Boy: Through the internal Gawker messaging system on the profile page.
Glib and Bitchy
@MisterHippity: I guess that's another bug desperately in need of being worked out.
@Glib and Bitchy: Really? I didn't get it. Did you send to cajunboyinthecity at the gmails dot com?
@MisterHippity: Don't. Tempt. Me.