quiddities and agonies of the ruling class, DC edition - a rolling washington post thread

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A cunning plan:

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few": Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff."

Damage control!:

The Washington Post's executive editor said today he is "appalled" by a plan to charge lobbyists as much as $250,000 for off-the-record gatherings at the home of the paper's publisher -- with Obama administration officials, members of Congress and the paper's reporters and editors -- and insisted that the newsroom will not participate.

"It suggests that access to Washington Post journalists was available for purchase," Brauchli said in an interview. 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."

Brauchli was responding to fliers, circulated by the paper's parent company, offering 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 this morning by Politico.

"We do not offer access to the newsroom for money," Brauchli said. "We just are not in that business."

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 July 2009 15:58 (1 year ago) Permalink

'skeptical questioning'

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 July 2009 15:59 (1 year ago) Permalink

w t f

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 2 July 2009 16:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

Ezra K was not thrilled.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 July 2009 16:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

if that's not enough to utterly demolish a newspaper's credibility, what is?

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 2 July 2009 16:25 (1 year ago) Permalink

washington times in "more respectable dc rag" shockah

iro with the brown bag (Hunt3r), Thursday, 2 July 2009 16:29 (1 year ago) Permalink

Pissed off (lobbyist?) guy in comments to Klein:

"Get off your holier than thou pulpit man. I hate to break this to you but you are a lobbyist. You are essentially being paid to lobby via this form of media for your various causes. Lobbyists allow people to focus on raising their kids and walking their dogs instead of worrying about the latest political power grab. Newspapers also lobby the Government and perform a similar filtering function for the population at large. So why don't newspapers like lobbyists? Could it be self-interest? Greed? Or more plainly put; they just don't like the competition.

yeah so take that you fake fuckin hippie

iro with the brown bag (Hunt3r), Thursday, 2 July 2009 16:33 (1 year ago) Permalink

i forgot a close quote there, he dint call him an ffh

iro with the brown bag (Hunt3r), Thursday, 2 July 2009 16:34 (1 year ago) Permalink

A strategic decision:

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.

"Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, 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."

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 July 2009 17:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

Lol, a classic "sorry we betrayed our actual intentions so brazenly" apology.

Garri$on Kilo (Hurting 2), Thursday, 2 July 2009 17:45 (1 year ago) Permalink

And now the ombudsman:

For a storied newspaper that cherishes its reputation for ethical purity, this comes pretty close to a public relations disaster.

Politico reported this morning that The Post has been soliciting lobbyists to pay from $25,000 to $250,000 to underwrite off-the-record “salons” at the home of publisher Katharine Weymouth that would provide access to administration and congressional leaders and the paper’s reporters and editors.

The story, accurately reported by Politico reporter Mike Allen, is based on a flier being circulated by a new marketing arm of The Post that has been created to host conferences and events.

The problem: The Post often decries those who charge for access to public officials. This raised the specter of a money-losing newspaper doing the same thing -- and charging for access to its own reporters and editors as well.

Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli says he never saw the flier and would not have approved it. “I had no idea,” he said.

The Post scrambled to limit damage and immediately canceled the first scheduled event.

Brauchli immediately sent a staff note saying: “We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money The Post will offer access to newsroom personnel or will refrain from confrontational questioning. Our independence from advertisers or sponsors in inviolable.”

Weymouth is out of town.

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 2 July 2009 18:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

i just want to know how many human skulls had been ordered for the wine. well, that and what denomination of bill was being planned for the lighting of the cigars.

Tracer Hand, Thursday, 2 July 2009 18:43 (1 year ago) Permalink

is it me or is the phrase "a storied newspaper" kinda awkward

juliette brioche (elmo argonaut), Thursday, 2 July 2009 18:50 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

"I don't think the series worked as they intended," Brauchli said. "It was meant to be funny and insightful and translate the superb journalism Chris and Dana do in print and online into a new format."

bodied peanuts (goole), Wednesday, 5 August 2009 19:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

Spot the deliberate mistake:

"Mouthpiece Theater" was designed as a sendup of pompous punditry, with Milbank, the paper's Washington Sketch columnist, and Cillizza, a White House correspondent who writes The Fix blog

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 5 August 2009 19:23 (1 year ago) Permalink

score one for nico pitney i guess

bodied peanuts (goole), Wednesday, 5 August 2009 19:24 (1 year ago) Permalink

Cillizza agreed that the plug should be pulled, saying: "We'd hoped the self-deprecating humor of me and the irreverent humor of Dana would combine to make something funny and interesting and on the news. It wound up not working. . . . Ultimately it wasn't funny."

i don't think "ultimately" is the right word there. "initially"'? "thoroughly"? "manifestly"?

bodied peanuts (goole), Wednesday, 5 August 2009 19:26 (1 year ago) Permalink

4 weeks pass...

Cue Claude Rains shocked to find out about gambling etc.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:19 (1 year ago) Permalink

I do like what this builds up to:

One of the things that gives the Redskins prestige is the team's waiting list, which goes back decades.

The general admission waiting list, which famously included Snyder before he bought the team a decade ago, is considered one of the Redskins' most valuable assets. It is held up by the team as a symbol of unwavering demand for Redskins tickets. The team has the highest season ticket-renewal rate in the NFL.

Bloggers, fans in online chat rooms and others have often expressed doubt that the list is as long as advertised, especially in recent years, as the team has gone through tough seasons and played only one postseason home game since winning the Super Bowl in 1992. In recent months, numerous people have contacted The Post and said they have been repeatedly solicited to buy Redskins season tickets, even though they did not sign up to be on the waiting list.

"Redskins are sold out -- in theory," said ASC's Greenberg. "This year, they sent letters to everybody on the lower level to add more tickets to their account. The Redskins have done a great job of keeping that aura that they're sold out."

Redskins officials defended the list but acknowledged that some people's names could be on it more than once. They invited a reporter to look at it. Located in a locked storage room, the list is a computer printout that occupies 16 binders kept in banker's boxes.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:22 (1 year ago) Permalink

i've been thinking about that list since high school.

Mr. Que, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 19:31 (1 year ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Cooper would answer questions only through messages sent to his Facebook account, which features a photo of a man in a striped polo shirt holding a champagne flute.

a wicked 60s beat poop combo (Pancakes Hackman), Thursday, 22 October 2009 19:26 (10 months ago) Permalink

haha i thought of this thread when reading that

W i l l, Friday, 23 October 2009 03:59 (10 months ago) Permalink

Makes me think of a DC thread (I think in the sandbox days) where one Friday all we did was post pictures from Capitol Club events and lol.

quincie, Friday, 23 October 2009 14:33 (10 months ago) Permalink

Eyewitness reports from a coughstucker!

Ned Raggett, Thursday, 5 November 2009 15:34 (9 months ago) Permalink

In the K Street corridor, a host of upscale clubs and lounges, such as Lima and Josephine, have opened up in the past few years. They cater to this demographic, with lines spilling into the street and lending downtown Washington a spring break-like atmosphere after business hours. Shadow Room, where customers can order a drink on their iPhone from the dance floor, is a particular favorite of the young rich from the outer fringes because it sits at 21st and K streets with easy access to Interstate 66.

The District had been thought of as conservative and stuffy, Lund said, but a host of young entrepreneurs, Obama administration staffers and ex-Wall Street types imported to help fix the financial system have kicked the city's energy "into hyper-drive."

One recent Friday evening, Shah and one of his business partners, Rajeev Subramanian, 28, hosted a bustling party at Josephine, where one of their young Montgomery County clients spent more than $2,000 at a reserve table, quaffing Dom Perignon and Cristal champagne.

About 3 a.m., they climbed into their cars for the wearying 45-minute drive back to Ashburn, where they share a townhouse decorated in bachelor-pad style, with an L-shaped couch and big-screen TVs.

Life in the suburbs can be isolating, Shah said. They don't know their neighbors.

But Shah, who also lives and works part of the week in Richmond, said he wouldn't have it any other way.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110604170_pf.html

W i l l, Saturday, 7 November 2009 16:54 (9 months ago) Permalink

"Shadow Room, where customers can order a drink on their iPhone from the dance floor, is a particular favorite of the young rich from the outer fringes because it sits at 21st and K streets with easy access to Interstate 66"

A mildly disconcerting juxtaposition of facts.

Bay-L.A. Bar Talk (Hurting 2), Saturday, 7 November 2009 17:13 (9 months ago) Permalink

comments are a treat, of course
"I live in DC and would party solo at the Red Robin in Manassas before hanging with those clowns."

barack ochocinco (daria-g), Saturday, 7 November 2009 17:58 (9 months ago) Permalink

(xp) ^ haha yeah also I'm going to call BS on that claim entirely - Shadow Room is popular w/ that crowd because it was founded by outer fringe tech riche, not because it's 7 blocks closer out of a 30-mile drive.

I DIED, Saturday, 7 November 2009 18:03 (9 months ago) Permalink

Also can I point out that this is an actual photo from the actual article and not just a stock image they found with an unkind keyword search.

I DIED, Saturday, 7 November 2009 18:13 (9 months ago) Permalink

4 weeks pass...

I love the bit about his buddies saying he shoulda bought the Browns.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:39 (8 months ago) Permalink

"We have $11 trillion residential mortgages, $3 trillion commercial mortgages. Total $14 trillion. Five percent of that is $700 billion. A nice round number."

No wonder we're in trouble.

caek, Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:41 (8 months ago) Permalink

ah forget it, i'm illiterate as well as innumerate.

caek, Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:41 (8 months ago) Permalink

is that a british 'billion' joke

crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:41 (8 months ago) Permalink

i liked the build your own shack in the mountains part of that story

jazzgasms (Mr. Que), Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:42 (8 months ago) Permalink

i did too :-/

crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:43 (8 months ago) Permalink

xxp, no it's a i lost the ability to focus and should go to bed joke

that was a cool article though!

caek, Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:43 (8 months ago) Permalink

cute dogs

max, Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:44 (8 months ago) Permalink

He doesn't see anything out the window that he misses, except maybe Chipotle.

Dude PLEASE. You could have at least been missing the actually good Ethiopian food in DC, not fucking Chipotle.

Ned Raggett, Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:44 (8 months ago) Permalink

velko, Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:50 (8 months ago) Permalink

At this altitude, pressure builds to bursting. Minal's hand lotion oozes in her purse, the pretzel bags swell, and when Kashkari hacks a log, it explodes with pine-scented powder. The smell, he says, is "purifying."

who needs science when what you really need is a colorful metaphor for your subject's mental state

crazy farting throwback jersey (gbx), Sunday, 6 December 2009 23:52 (8 months ago) Permalink

Paulson dry heaving

W i l l, Monday, 7 December 2009 02:29 (8 months ago) Permalink

Camping cabin simplicity dogs nice OH NEVER MIND:

Neel Kashkari, the first head of the government's $700 billion financial rescue program, will join Pacific Investment Management Co. as a managing director and head of new investment initiatives, the company said Monday.

Pimco, one of the world's largest bond managers and a unit of Germany Allianz, said Kashkari will be based in its Newport Beach, Calif., office.

...welcome to OC?

Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 December 2009 20:34 (8 months ago) Permalink

i liked the build your own shack in the mountains part of that story

it must be nice to have the kind of money where you can afford to buy all that stuff and take a long vacation.

10 yards for tripping o_O (daria-g), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 03:14 (8 months ago) Permalink

1 month passes...

Sally Quinn's Washington Post Style section pieces on how Washingtonians (read elite well-connected political types) need to have more parties and need to follow her etiquette ideas at such parties make me laugh. She analyzes Official Washington parties from Kennedy to the present today:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/26/AR2010012603507.html

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 27 January 2010 15:07 (7 months ago) Permalink

Oh Sally...

I get asked almost every day how Washington life has changed since the newcomers came to town. The answer is: not at all. In fact, it's probably duller than it's ever been. This is nobody's fault, per se, nor is it necessarily a bad thing. These are difficult times, and it's just the way it is.

Years ago, the city looked to the White House to set the social tone. Whatever style the president and first lady favored was the style adopted. The Kennedys enthralled the town with their youth, exuberance and glamour. They had round skirted tables at a state dinner, and suddenly everyone had round tables. The Johnsons came in with their down-home Texas barbecues and you couldn't go out at night without being served ribs and baked beans. It wasn't until Nixon that people started to do their own thing. He introduced U-shaped tables, like the Russians, and instructed the White House guards to wear imperial hats. Most of those close to the president (except for Henry Kissinger) were distanced from the establishment. Inevitably, hostility toward the White House grew.

Native Washingtonians began to rebel, coming up with their own style of entertaining

Yep, during those Kennedy sixties (Vietnam , civil rights, etc. but clearly per Sally less "difficult" than now), poor and segregated African-Americans in DC were busy saving bucks to get those Camelot style round tables just like the President.

curmudgeon, Wednesday, 27 January 2010 15:30 (7 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

yes sally quinn that master of party tact.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/18/AR2010021805078.html?hpid=news-col-blog

this is just appallingly embarrassing. why on earth is she given space for this??

Tracer Hand, Sunday, 21 February 2010 01:28 (6 months ago) Permalink

Her hubby is Ben Bradlee, former editor in chief of the W. Post. We have been marveling over her out-of-touch pieces in the Dc thread also

Brad Pitt Has Your Secret Shit: Rolling DC

curmudgeon, Sunday, 21 February 2010 04:30 (6 months ago) Permalink

She is an embarrassment to our city. Please do not judge us by her.

quincie, Sunday, 21 February 2010 17:41 (6 months ago) Permalink

3 months pass...

WELL LOOK WHO IT IS

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2010/07/sally-quinn-201007?currentPage=1

max, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:09 (3 months ago) Permalink

First, she would like to clarify that she wasn't canned; the “Party” column had been intended only as a holiday-season offshoot of her On Faith Web site, and she'd started phasing it out anyway. Second, she feels no need to apologize. After the firestorm, she entered the concrete meditation labyrinth her husband had built for her on their country estate in St. Mary's County, Maryland, to think.

max, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:11 (3 months ago) Permalink

Oh jesus.

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:16 (3 months ago) Permalink

I just...

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:16 (3 months ago) Permalink

Plz keep excerpting max, because I will truly lose the will to live if I have to actually read that article.

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:17 (3 months ago) Permalink

the concrete meditation labyrinth

Hm, so Lost makes sense now.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:23 (3 months ago) Permalink

At times, her protectiveness may have felt overbearing. On a trip to St. Martin, Quinn lost his virginity to a prostitute in a brothel bar. When he told his parents the next morning, his father essentially congratulated him. Sally, on the other hand, was hysterical. She dragged him back to the brothel, demanded to know who the girl was, and, with Quinn in tow, escorted her to a clinic to get tested for H.I.V. “I often think that Quinn would not be alive had it not been for Sally,” says Walsh.

max, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:27 (3 months ago) Permalink

WHAT

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:31 (3 months ago) Permalink

And then something even more wonderful happened to Quinn. He met Pary Williamson, who would become his first girlfriend. After an astrologer told Sally that Quinn would benefit from yoga, she had lunch with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, who recommended her own teacher, Pary, whose students included David Gregory and Rahm Emanuel. Sally signed Quinn up for six sessions with her. “It was love at first sight,” says Sally. “She's a magical person. It's just a miracle.” They live next door to Ben and Sally, where Quinn had been living with roommates. “Both of them are very clear about not wanting to be each other's caretaker.” While some observers question Pary's motives—she seemed to appear out of nowhere and is said to have had a hardscrabble life—those who know her disagree. “She really is a very upbeat, very exuberant, sweet, nice person and believes in all the spiritual values of yoga and all that stuff,” says one of her students. “The whole idea of your life lived out in public is not her style at all.”

max, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:32 (3 months ago) Permalink

thats quinn bradlee, sallys son

max, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:32 (3 months ago) Permalink

i had some trouble with that at first

max, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:32 (3 months ago) Permalink

Okay this is all worth it to imagine frickin' RAHM EMANUEL doing yoga for more than, what, five seconds?

"And breathe out--"

"FUCK YOU!"

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:33 (3 months ago) Permalink

Meanwhile can this go in the thread?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/02/AR2010060202373.html

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:35 (3 months ago) Permalink

"hey pops. mom. what up. so you know how i said i was going to check out some reggae last night while you guys went out for dinner? well.... check out these photos"

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:35 (3 months ago) Permalink

We wanted to see the Gores -- our parents, our friends, the neighbors with the porch -- delight in their twilight years. Playing with their grandchildren, traveling together in a way they never could before, operating more slowly, but in union. We want to see them move into sweetness.

Who are you and what did you do with the human being you colonized and whose brain you ate?

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:36 (3 months ago) Permalink

In spite of the feathers she ruffled, Sally, at age 41, had achieved all she had set out to do. The only thing missing now was a child. In 1982, she gave birth to a son whose very name—Josiah Quinn Crowninshield Bradlee—connoted great expectations. When an interviewer from People magazine asked her if she wasn't concerned about Quinn's having two relatively old parents, she replied, “I think the advantages he'll have by having us as parents outweigh the disadvantages of our age.”

max, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:36 (3 months ago) Permalink

Ned that's basically the question that I want to ask 95% of the op-ed writers at all our national newspapers.

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:37 (3 months ago) Permalink

You are wise to think that.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:38 (3 months ago) Permalink

“I think the advantages he'll have by having us as parents outweigh the disadvantages of our age.”

jfc @ this person if we can call her that

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:39 (3 months ago) Permalink

My cup of hate runneth over

The Clegg Effect (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 2 June 2010 16:43 (3 months ago) Permalink

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/14/AR2010061404977.html

Editorial bravely standing up for the rights of those who wish to use the Mall to film parts of Transformers 3.

The story line is, after all, a solid one, with its saga of the good Autobots vs. the evil Decepticons. The animated and film versions deal with teamwork, morality, underdogs and the corruptive pull of power.

I DIED, Tuesday, 15 June 2010 04:51 (2 months ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

is that by armond white

young werther's originals (s1ocki), Tuesday, 6 July 2010 15:35 (1 month ago) Permalink

So compelling:

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Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 July 2010 15:51 (1 month ago) Permalink

i would pay anything for that

young werther's originals (s1ocki), Wednesday, 7 July 2010 20:51 (1 month ago) Permalink

You aim to get the most out of life.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 7 July 2010 20:52 (1 month ago) Permalink


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