Those who know me best know I am rarely speechless.
However, this little gem on Politico about the apparent violent death of professional standards at the Washington Post is absolutely astounding.
Wow.
That’s all I can say.
Wow.
What are your thoughts?
UPDATE: It appears from this link that the Post newsroom was as astonished by this announcement as the rest of us.
UPDATE, PART DEUX: This bright idea is now dead, according to Politico.
All’s well that ends well.
18 Comments
Thankfully the newsroom responded forcefully and appropriately. If there is no integrity in the content, the marketing department has nothing to sell.
Sounds like the corporate owners of the Post saw an opportunity to make money by exploiting their hard-working news staff. Fortunately the news staff told them where to stick it:
“The flier circulated this morning came out of a business division for conferences and events, and the newsroom was unaware of such communication … We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money …
Our independence from advertisers or sponsors is inviolable.”
Unfortunately, the traditional barriers appear to have had several holes knocked into them at the Post.
You’d hope that professional ethics would still trump the bottom line, financial crisis or not.
Bill – I think the fact that the professionals refused to go along indicates that perhaps their standards DID trump the bottom line.
We’ll see how long those professionals are working at the WaPo.
Or you should say the Politico for getting this story out. I’m sure they pissed off a lot of “higher ups” in the Democratic Party and that usually means a huge target on your back.
I commend the courage of the Politico, one of the greatest “inside Washington” news sources around.
The American People are beginning to distrust the main news sources as they are clearly now becoming ever so closely aligned as an arm of a political party.
Joe! – I will second your congratulations to Politico on this. And you are correct – internet news definitely adds a new diminsion to the news.
Presstitutes.
Good term tmann. Good to see that – at least for now – the reporters resisted the attempts made by their corporate bosses.
Bill – a question: What would happen if the corporates at McClatchey did the same? Would Eagle reporters resist? Would you?
Loooong time ago, when I lived in the area, a friend read the Washington Star as well as the Post, figuring the slant of each would cancel the other. An event like this just makes the Post’s position really obvious.
IMHO the Post’s ethical pronouncements are just public relations reaction to getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar….
I strongly suspect you’d see the same reaction in the newsroom here, Ben.
With that said, however, I always get a hearty laugh out of those who buy into the Limbaugh-esque canard that the entire mainstream media is in the Democratic bag.
Reason: Where were all those left-leaners during the factual fog running up to the war in Iraq? They sure weren’t fact-checking anything.
I tend to think they’re actually bemoaning journalistic incompetence.
Bill – I agree – and would add ‘journalistic’ laziness. They would rather take a canned press release, change a few words, and pretend they actually did something.
We see the same thing here in Wichita – especially in the business section with stuff from WaterWalk etc reported as ‘news’
Ah, I wouldn’t agree with that at all, Ben. People often get confused about the mission of Business Today, which is business to business. This isn’t a consumer publication.
Interesting. As a small business owner I had always considered te Business pages on the newspaper to which I subscribe as being for everyone – big business, small business, consumers, workers, and taxpayers.
That’s confusing Bill, I would have to side on Ben on this one. If Business Today is for B2B only, why not publish as a Trade Publication, rather than as a section of a General-Interest daily?
I think you have to be about business to care about the business section, whether as a business owner, investor, or other support (e.g. SBA/SCORE person).
knk – as a business owner I have interests that reflect that. However I am also a consumer and a citizen of Wichita. That status also gives me interests in businesses even though they do not directly effect my companies. Employees and consumenrs are also ‘about business’ stakeholders.