FAREWELL TO PRINT NEWS AND ITS TIRELESS REPORTERS ... HELLO TO MORE CORRUPTION!
PeterPrince
for state and local political corruption. It is going to be one of the
great times to be a corrupt politician." -- David Simon, HBO
"A newspaperman's job is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the
comfortable"
---------------------------
"Mourning a Scourge of the Comfortable"
By Dana Milbank
Sunday, June 7, 2009
After Wall Street Journal investigative reporter John Wilke died last
month, his family didn't hold his memorial service in a church. They
held it at the Newseum. It was a perfect choice to honor a man for
whom newspapering was a civic religion.
His father was a United Church of Christ minister and a nationally
known activist for the disabled. His brother is a minister, too, and
he officiated at John's service last week. John, who died of
pancreatic cancer at age 54, wasn't much of a churchgoer. But as I sat
and listened for two hours to the stories of his too-short life, I
learned that the same instinct that drove his father and brother to
the cloth made journalism sacred for John. As one childhood friend put
it: "John, too, was a man who had a moral mission, but without the
clerical collar."
John's brother, the Rev. Kit Wilke, tried to explain it to us ink-
stained heathens in the room. "There's something about what has been
called the most secular, the most skeptical, the most cynical of
professions," he began. "You journalists love the truth. . . . You
also know that truth is elusive, that it must be gone after, sought.
It doesn't come easily. No one owns it and dispenses it. In fact, what
you usually spend your time going after are those who think they have
it."
That's where the moral mission comes in. "You journalists seem to me
to believe that knowing the truth, or at least seeking the truth, is
far better than accepting the fables that this town and so many other
places pass off as the truth," Kit went on. "That elusive truth that
you as journalists, as scientists and poets, seek is the One we
religious types still insist knows our pain and in some way echoes
through this universe."
As I listened to Kit try to find God in his brother's humanistic
quest, I got the sense I was hearing a eulogy not just for John but
also for his calling. In that room were several hundred people, most
of them journalists, many of whom had fled the profession -- or were
forced to flee -- by the sudden collapse of our economic model. And we
were there on the seventh floor of the Newseum, our very own Natural
History Museum, already imparting on us roughly the same status as the
fossils a few blocks away at the Smithsonian.
Of course, John was one of the great specimens of the journalistic
species, and his skills would have been in demand had he lived into
his 90s, as his mother has. The worry for journalism is that there
will be fewer John Wilkes -- or perhaps no John Wilkes -- to replace
him.
It was John's work that led to the indictment of former representative
Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) over his financial dealings. Six months after
John's story about mutual fund giant Mario Gabelli, the investor
settled civil fraud claims with the government for about $100 million.
John cared not about political party as he detailed the dubious uses
of federal funds by Reps. John Murtha of Pennsylvania and Alan
Mollohan of West Virginia, both Democrats, and former representative
Charles Taylor of North Carolina, a Republican.
Most people associate journalism with globetrotting White House
correspondents or the ideologues of the op-ed page. But the ones
losing their jobs now are more important: thousands of lesser-known
John Wilkes across the country, holding officials to account at all
levels of government. At a Senate hearing last month on the decline of
newspapers, David Simon, the reporter turned HBO producer, put it this
way: "The next 10 or 15 years in this country are going to be a
halcyon era for state and local political corruption. It is going to
be one of the great times to be a corrupt politician."
That's all the more true because we won't have John Wilke on the case.
He was the perfect answer to complaints about the "elite" media; he
drove a cab before going to journalism school, preferred a bomber
jacket to a business suit and liked to end the workday with a few
beers. He never flagged in his belief in the old adage that a
newspaperman's job is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the
comfortable" -- a sentiment adapted, as it happens, from the Psalms.
Brother Kit returned to the theme in his closing prayer for John --
and for the rest of us. "Embrace our brother, our friend, the source
of so much intensity and laughter, so much truth, so many wrongs
righted, so many lies exposed, so much love," the minister said. "May
his friends still put fear in the hearts of those who think they have
won a victory because of prevarication."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/05/AR2009060503150.html
zzbu...@netscape.net
> "The next 10 or 15 years in this country are going to be a halcyon era
> for state and local political corruption. It is going to be one of the
> great times to be a corrupt politician." -- David Simon, HBO
>
> "A newspaperman's job is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the
> comfortable"
Well, that;s they're going-out-of buisness idiot problem.
Since you can only carry the acidic piss-and-vinegar 'wit'
so far, until people with actual non-zero mentalities
invent stuff like Laser Disk Libraries, Optical Computers,
Microcomputers,
Distrubuted Processing Algorithms, Cell Phones, Fiber Optics,
Holographics,
Weather Satellites, GPS, AUVs, Netware Publishing, Drones, Cruise
Missiles,
HDTV, and Self-Replicating Machines.
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/05/AR200...
Lykmi Pusi
"SPONSORS"!
Unethical policy could seal the already weakened newspaper's fate!
-----------------------
"Post Co. Cancels Corporate Dinners"
"Journalistic Boundaries Brought Into Question"
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 3, 2009
WASHINGTON POST PUBLISHER Katharine Weymouth yesterday canceled plans
for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that
marketing fliers offered corporate underwriters access to Post
journalists, Obama administration officials and members of Congress in
exchange for payments as high as $250,000.
"Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth said in an interview. "This
should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren't vetted.
They didn't represent at all what we were attempting to do. We're not
going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the
newsroom."
The fliers were approved by a top Post marketing executive, Charles
Pelton, who said it was "a big mistake" on his part and that he had
done so "without vetting it with the newsroom." He said that Kaiser
Permanente had orally agreed to pay $25,000 to sponsor a July 21
health-care dinner at Weymouth's Northwest Washington home, and that
Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.) had agreed to be a guest. Pelton, who serves
as general manager for conferences and events, said he had invited
two-
dozen business executives, advocates and presidential health adviser
Nancy-Ann DeParle. But a White House spokeswoman said no senior
administration officials had agreed to attend, and an aide to DeParle
said she had received no such invitation.
Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli said he was "appalled" by the plan.
"It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available
for purchase," Brauchli said. The proposal "promises we would suspend
our usual skeptical questioning because it appears to offer, in
exchange for sponsorships, the good name of The Washington Post."
The Post Co. fliers offered an "intimate and exclusive Washington Post
Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and
Publisher Katharine Weymouth." The fliers, which said participants
would be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon and $250,000 to
underwrite an annual series of 11 sessions, were reported yesterday by
Politico.
The full-color flier for the July 21 dinner said: "Bring your
organization's CEO or executive director literally to the table.
Interact with key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders . . .
Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of
Katharine Weymouth assures it." The dinner, it said, would involve
"health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington
Post . . . an exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care
reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done."
Weymouth, who had not seen the marketing copy, said that "we will
never compromise our journalistic integrity." But she said other news
organizations sponsor similar conferences and that she remains
comfortable with the basic idea of lobbyists or corporations
underwriting dinners with officials and journalists as long as those
paying the fees have no control over the content.
But precisely what would be acceptable remains unclear. Asked whether
the forums she envisions might still be viewed as buying access to
Post journalists, Weymouth said, "I suppose you could spin it that
way, but that is not the way it would have been done." She said the
situation would be comparable to a company buying an ad in the
newspaper while knowing that it "might hate the content" on that
page.
Brauchli, who is listed on the flier as a host and discussion leader,
had been involved in discussions with Weymouth and other executives
stretching back to last year. He said he made clear to the company's
marketing division that Post journalists would participate only if
they could control the nature of any such conference. Brauchli said
his conditions included multiple sponsors for an extended series of
forums, rather than companies financing a single dinner involving
their industry; a balanced lineup of participants from across the
political spectrum; and no charge for the invited guests.
But even with those caveats, the off-the-record format would ensure
that The Post could not report on the discussions, even as its name
was being used to lure high-profile newsmakers.
"We expressed our concerns and are disappointed by this outcome,"
Brauchli said of the fliers, which were labeled "Underwriting
Opportunity." "I would ascribe it to a lack of effective communication
internally."
Even without the newsroom's participation, the aggressively worded
pitch conveys the impression that The Post is offering special
interests access to administration officials and lawmakers, raising a
separate set of concerns about a dubious partnership with those
covered by the newspaper. The Post often questions whether
corporations, unions and trade associations receive access or favors
in return for campaign contributions.
Access to Weymouth herself, a granddaughter of longtime publisher
Katharine Graham who took over as chief executive of Washington Post
Media last year, would be deemed valuable by those trying to influence
The Post's editorial policies and news coverage.
Tom Fiedler, dean of Boston University's College of Communication,
said news organizations should be a neutral broker among differing
interests and that "what The Post was looking to do was to make a
profit on the role of the convener. . . . The idea of crossing a
boundary line that seems to me painted so brightly white, I'm
astonished that it got this far."
Pelton co-owned Modern Media, a California-based firm that staged
conferences, before joining The Post Co. two months ago. "We should
never imply that there's a possible link between coming [to dinners]
and access, either to the leaders or the policymakers or the
journalists," he said, conceding that he had been "sloppy . . . in my
enthusiasm to get the salons up and running without properly thinking
through the implications of what was written."
John Spragens, a spokesman for Cooper, said that once the Tennessee
Democrat learned the details of the dinner, he would not have attended
"a radioactive event. . . . You don't want to be put in a position as
a congressman where someone's buying access to you."
Sybil Wartenberg, a spokeswoman for California-based Kaiser
Permanente, said the company had not made a final decision to finance
the dinner -- no contract had been signed -- and was not attempting to
buy influence. "Our organization is not as well-known on the East
Coast," she said. "We're keenly interested in reform and want to be at
the table for discussions."
The controversy led White House counsel Gregory Craig to remind
administration officials that they need advance approval to
participate in such events. His memo said that "federal ethics rules
restricting the acceptance of gifts govern your ability to accept free
admission to events put on by a nongovernmental sponsor."
A number of media companies charge substantial fees for conferences
with big-name executives and government officials, but in many cases
the sessions are open for news coverage.
This week, for instance, Atlantic Media is sponsoring the Aspen Ideas
Festival, underwritten by Altria, Boeing, Booz Allen Hamilton, Ernst &
Young, Mercedes-Benz, Philips, Shell and Thomson Reuters. Speakers
include White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee, U.N. Ambassador
Susan Rice, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Supreme Court Justice
Stephen Breyer and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, along with journalists for
Atlantic and other media outlets.
Atlantic Editor James Bennet said the festival, co-sponsored by the
Aspen Institute, "is open to the press . . . and we're videotaping it.
We have editorial control over it. We decide what the panels are and
who's on them. There are absolutely no constraints put on it at all."
In March, the Wall Street Journal brought together global finance
leaders -- including Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd -- for a two-day conference
sponsored by Nasdaq and hosted by Robert Thomson, the Journal's top
editor, and other editors and reporters. Outside journalists were
invited to the session, which was on the record and webcast by the
Journal. Participants, who paid several thousand dollars to attend,
also had a White House meeting with economic adviser Lawrence Summers,
which was off the record at his request.
The Journal also holds conferences with its All Things Digital unit. A
session in May, described as offering "unmatched access to the
technology industry's elite," was sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and
Qualcomm, among others, and featured the CEOs of Microsoft, Yahoo, NBC
Universal, AT&T and Twitter, as well as Weymouth.
The New Yorker hosts an annual festival in Manhattan featuring its
editors and writers along with other journalists, authors and
entertainers. The gathering planned for October is sponsored by
American Airlines, Delta, Westin Hotels and Banana Republic.
Weymouth has come under increasing pressure to find new sources of
revenue. The Post Co. lost $19.5 million in the first quarter and just
completed its fourth round of early-retirement buyouts in several
years.
Many Post journalists were stunned by the Politico story and angry
about the fliers. Weymouth told the staff in an afternoon e-mail that
the flier "completely misrepresented what we were trying to do," but
added: "We do believe that there is a viable way to expand our
expertise into live conferences and events that simply enhances what
we do -- cover Washington for Washingtonians and those interested in
Washington."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070201563.html
zzbu...@netscape.net
Well, the people with brains knew that. But since they also they
knew that the only thing Washington idiots even know about computers
or engineering is Ben Frankin and e-mail, that's of course why they
work on
4D Holograms, HDTV, GPS, Digital Terrain Mapping, Flat Screen
Software Debuggers,
Atomic Clock Wristwatches,Optical Computers, Laser Disks, Light
Sticks,
Electronic Books, Fiber Optics, All-In-One Printers, XML, USB, C++,
On-Line Banking,
On-Line Publishing, UAVs, AAVs, Thermo-Electric Cooling, Microwave
Cooling, Cyber Batteries,
Cruise Missiles, Drones, Biodiesel, Pv Cell Energy, Compact
Flourescent lLghting,
Self-Replicating Machines, and Self-Assembling Robots.
Rather than with the Washington Post Delivery Service Anyway..
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR200...