As the once proud (or at least respectable) institution rots, the sights and smells become impossible to ignore.
Charles Kaiser reports the latest debacle, one that makes the Post’s transparent and pathetic firing of Dan Froomkin seem almost trivial. Almost. Here is the meat of the matter, but the entire piece needs to be read to be believed. Even then it remains unbelievable.
The decision by the Post’s publisher to sell access to government officials was the latest–and, by far, the most horrific–in a series of disastrous decisions in the last two weeks which, taken together, have destroyed what was once one of the proudest brands in American journalism.
As news of the Politico story raced across the Internet this morning, former and present news executives inside and outside The Washington Post Company reacted with stunned horror. As Allen put it in his Politico story, “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.”
Arthur Gelb, the legendary former managing editor of The New York Times, declared, “Say It Ain’t So, Katharine. Where are the principles set by your grandmother and Ben Bradlee that had for so long imbued the Post? How can your reporters and editors we so admire and respect sit on their hands while this degradation evolves?”
Read the rest of this embarrassing development, here. Make sure you have some windex handy; you’ll want to wipe off your screen after reading this. All I can say is that Ben Bradlee is spinning so fast in his grave he looks like a hamster in a cage.
