Comments on: Washington Post Apologizes for Exclusive Access

By: Watching the Washington Post Crumble : Ed Lallo’s Blog

Watching the Washington Post Crumble : Ed Lallo’s Blog — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 12:00:27 +0000

[...] legendary newspaper woman Katharine Graham. Just a month ago, Weymouth got caught up in a another scandal of major proportions in a scheme to sell exclusive access to Post reporters for lobbyists and power [...]

By: Watching the Washington Post Crumble | David Henderson - consultant, author, journalist

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:39:15 +0000

By: 3Hats Communications: Marketing and Public Relations Blog

3Hats Communications: Marketing and Public Relations Blog — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:55:01 +0000

[...] that it’s been done before, the Post screwed up by getting caught. For its violation of the public trust, David Henderson said the Post “broke every rule and code of ethical conduct in [...]

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:44:28 +0000

This is a pretty sad indictment of the levels some people will stoop to in order to further their “cause” and can only add fuel to the raging “Is print dead?” debate.

@Dean: While I agree with your point that media has often looked down upon bloggers,I’d disagree that bloggers have always supported transparency. The good ones do; but many do not. They hide paid posts, sponsorships, don’t always check facts and go for sensationalism.

This isn’t all bloggers; but there are many that are just as guilty of the WP’s crime as there are transparent bloggers. This needs to improve as well before blogging can hope for overall acceptance amongst “peers and contemporaries”.

By: dean guadagni

dean guadagni — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:02:26 +0000

David,

Again you have brought to light a subject I am compelled to comment upon.

It has always been the Web 1.0 mainstream media’s mantra that bloggers were:

1. Not responsible journalists
2. Did not check facts to a story
3. Were less talented writers
4. Were information thieves
5. Had special interests not in the public’s best interests

Bloggers have always supported “transparency” in communication. Newspapers and journalists at these newspapers only had their “credibility” to dangle in front of our faces representing the flag of legitimacy.

Now we all know the truth as long suspected. Anyone with deep pockets can buy a story in one of this country’s largest newspapers or tap into unreleased information for their own manipulation.

By: Roxann Henze

Roxann Henze — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:30:03 +0000

I was appalled when I read about this on Media Bistro. And was even more appalled when I read her apology letter to the readers where it said:

“I want to apologize for a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity. A flier distributed last week suggested that we were selling access to power brokers in Washington through dinners that were to take place at my home. The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind.”

How could she not know about dinners that were planned at her own home?!

I haven’t read the NYT article.

By: vivek-consultgenie

vivek-consultgenie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:07:36 +0000

well according to me its more about the credibility than the integrity..thank you for sharing this with us..

By: Klint Demetrio

Klint Demetrio — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 01:51:23 +0000

Wow that is seriously bad. And it doesn’t look like ‘they get the wrong that they just did’ or ‘its impact in regards to the organization’s relationship/responsibility in regards to what they claim to be (professional journalists) with the public.’ Only that they got caught and their prior attempts to avoid bad press didn’t work.

By: Kathryn

Kathryn — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 18:20:50 +0000

That just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
What happened to integrity? Is it as a result of some kind of desperation in these tough economic times?