Please excuse me, I’m a military USAF wife for twenty-one years, and I’ve heard all cuss words, even those not yet invented. I rarely swear… except when something is so outrageous that only the Saxon mean can tell it like it is. In military talk, we say about stump stupid acts; Never, ever sh– where you eat, and especially, Do not sh– in your mess kit.
But today the Washington Post Newspaper is trying to not only clean the immense fecal pile off their plates, but also to spray perfume all over the place so hoping their tell-tale clinging stink will simply go away.
They want to call it all merely a gaffe. It’s an abomination. To us. To we who depend on the press’s honesty, unbiasedness, and ETHICS… which include, avoiding even the APPEARANCE of conflict of interest.
Seems WaPo sent out a flyer/ invitation to lobbyists that reads like this: “Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate,” says the one-page flier. “Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. … Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders.”
Press soliciting movers and shakers for press access? It seems there is a dollar cost attached to get close to WaPo too. At this moment, the WaPo has cancelled their ‘salon’ at the chief editor’s lavish home… and like I said, everyone over there has out their SOS and Bon Ami trying to mediate the smell they themselves laid down in enormous dog piles.
Read more here by Mike Allen & Michael Calderone, fine English and Italiano guys at Politico:
Here’s the thing: I have loved newspapers and defended them since I could read. I have covered the demise of the Scripps Howard paper, the 150 year old Rocky Mountain News; the Boston Globe and its investigative reporters, par excellence, now badly treated as the red-headed stepchild of the NYT corp; The WSJ when overtaken by King Rupert with an ‘off with their heads’ of some of the most talented writers and editors ever; the takeover of the LAT and same guillotine crashing of the talent going on there; the sliding into the red ink by the venerable Chi Trib, and onward.
But not upward re the Washington Post today.
Would Katherine Graham be turning over in her grave? I hope she stands up in her grave and staggers forth slinging sand and bandages to shriek endlessly at this grotesque stupidity, this public display of how the promise to the people about the sanctity of the objectivity of the press… has been broken today, smashed to smithereens.
Somewhere in the bosom of WaPo it seems there is a heart that is not filled with light, that craps on the ideal of a powerful and objective press, that cares nothing about investigating all balls out… but rather in inviting to a genteel backrub laid out with golden plates, much flowing wine to loosen restraints, and good food to relax the revelers… that is, the very lobbyists/politicos/ agents/ WaPo is supposed to be covering with acuity, not alacrity.
And this foremost: I mean really foremost… after this day, never ever ought any political sidewinder bluster and posture that our military soldiers, sons and daughters, fathers and mothers all… are fighting and dying so we in the Yourknighted States of ‘Merica, can have a free press… when in fact, as of today, we see, the press apparently not only can be bought, it is put out to the highest bidders.
So dont.
Just dont.
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CODA
Wrote to our managing editor and our editor in chief earlier today, re whether I could/ ought use this word in the headline, not meaning to be offensive with it, but as I mentioned, I think some rare matters are so, well, the s word with a y on the end, that they can barely be stated in anything less than a bit of Saxonese. … One ed has an autoresponder saying they are on vacation, the other is at their day job. I may have to change the headline later when I hear back. I apologize in advance if the word offended.