THE HOT JOINTS » corrupt media

Washington Post Announces Pay To Play Business Model

Chris Jones — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:42:54 +0000

The joke that is the mainstream media just became a little funnier today. The Washington Post circulated a flyer to health care lobbyists promising access to high level Obama administration officials for between $25,000 and $250,000.

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 flyer itself reads in part:

"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."

…“Spirited? Yes. Confrontational? No. The relaxed setting in the home of Katharine Weymouth assures it. What is guaranteed is a collegial evening, with Obama administration officials, Congress members, business leaders, advocacy leaders and other select minds typically on the guest list of 20 or less. …

“Offered at $25,000 per sponsor, per Salon. Maximum of two sponsors per Salon. Underwriters’ CEO or Executive Director participates in the discussion. Underwriters appreciatively acknowledged in printed invitations and at the dinner. Annual series sponsorship of 11 Salons offered at $250,000 … Hosts and Discussion Leaders … Health-care reporting and editorial staff members of The Washington Post … An exclusive opportunity to participate in the health-care reform debate among the select few who will actually get it done. … A Washington Post Salon … July 21, 2009 6:30 p.m. …

"Washington Post Salons are extensions of The Washington Post brand of journalistic inquiry into the issues, a unique opportunity for stakeholders to hear and be heard," the flier says. "At the core is a critical topic of our day. Dinner and a volley of ideas unfold in an evening of intelligent, news-driven and off-the-record conversation. … By bringing together those powerful few in business and policy-making who are forwarding, legislating and reporting on the issues, Washington Post Salons give life to the debate. Be at this nexus of business and policy with your underwriting of Washington Post Salons."

After Politico reported on this stunning situation, the WaPo immediately began making excuses and blaming the business division.

"The flier circulated this morning came out of a business division for conferences and events, and the newsroom was unaware of such communication. It went out before it was properly vetted, and this draft does not represent what the company’s vision for these dinners are, which is meant to be an independent, policy-oriented event for newsmakers.

"As written, the newsroom could not participate in an event like this. We do believe there is an opportunity to have a conferences and events business, and that The Post should be leading these conversations in Washington, big or small, while maintaining journalistic integrity. The newsroom will participate where appropriate."

First of all, the print media has no journalistic integrity. They work for Obama and will continue to work for Obama. The only difference is that now for the right price they’ll work for other people also.

Now that we know their price, conservatives need to start buying front page stories from time to time on issues the American people should know about.

I wonder if conservative bloggers pooled their money together and handed the WaPo a cash payment of $250,000 we could get a front-page story about the thousands of leading climate scientists who think global warming is phony?

Something tells me it would probably cost upwards of a $1 million for a story like that — provided the White House allowed it to be printed at all.

UPDATE:

WaPo has officially canceled the pay to play events:

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.”

It’s incredible the way Weymouth talks about this like an outsider looking in. She just can’t understand how something like this could happen — never mind that it was supposed to happen at HER house.

The only thing she’s sorry about is that it became public. I have no doubt the The New York Times has been doing this kind of thing for years, they’re just not dumb enough to draft up flyers advertising it.

The only thing this incident does is reinforce what we’ve known for a long time. The media in this country is corrupt beyond all repair. Nothing you read in the paper should be taken as fact.

Every story and every column has an agenda behind it. The idea of journalism as a public service meant to inform the public died years ago. Journalism is now the vehicle by which progressives attempt to shape public policy and remake America into a socialist utopia.

Video: The Merging Of Lefty Blogs With The Mainstream Media

Chris Jones — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:39:14 +0000

Take a look at this fantastic analysis of the cozy relationship between the mainstream media and left-wing blogs.

(hat tip Hot Air)

Audio: John Gibson Fires Back At Olbermann

Chris Jones — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:56:07 +0000

This is hilarious. Gibson shows once again what a horse’s ass Keith Olbermann is…

(hat tip johnny$)

How Obama Got Elected — Round Two

Chris Jones — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:29:45 +0000

Take a look at this fascinating follow-up to the ‘How Obama got elected’ controversy. In short, the new information confirms what the old information did — that Obama voters only knew what the corrupt, far left media told them. Which wasn’t a hell of a lot.

One of the big criticisms about the original ‘How Obama got elected’ polling was that McCain voters weren’t polled also to see if they in fact were more knowledgeable. So a Wilson Research Poll was conducted on McCain voters using the exact same questions as from the Zogby poll which only targeted Obama voters.

The results were astonishing. There is no question that those who voted for McCain did so because they had a grasp of the issues. Obama voters on the other hand blindly voted for ‘Hope & Change’ or because voting for Obama was the cool thing to do.

Change We Can Believe In: Olbermann and Matthews Out

Chris Jones — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:17:15 +0000

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Starting with the beginning of the Democratic Convention, Olbermann’s and Matthews behavior on-air grew more outrageous by the day. Their over-the-top praise for Obama’s speech was laughable, as was their objectivity.

Then when the two partisan hacks began covering the RNC, Olbermann’s look of disgust and contempt was front and center. He became the official fact-checker for every Republican speech. Immediately pointing out “lies” as he saw them about Democrats after each speaker.

Thankfully, the nightmare is finally over. Keith Olbermann and his long winded sidekick Chris Matthews will no longer be anchoring live political events on The Obama Network (MSNBC). Those duties will now be performed by one David Gregory with analysis from Olbermann and Matthews.

The final straw came when Olbermann finally snapped on-air during the Republican Convention and ‘apologized‘ for a 9/11 tribute video that was shown.

“I’m sorry, it’s necessary to say this,” he began. After saying that the video had exploited the memories of the dead, he directly apologized to viewers who were offended. Then, sounding like a network executive, he said it was “probably not appropriate to be shown.”

I saw this when it happened but considering everything else Olbermann gets away with saying I didn’t think much of it. But apparently this was too much for the top brass at NBC to take. With their ratings in the toilet night after night, business at some point had to trump far left ideology — at least this week.

NY Times Edits The Word “Electrifying” From Description Of Palin Speech

Chris Jones — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:55:36 +0000

The NY Times wrote a piece today about Obama’s strategy to counter Gov. Palin in the coming weeks. In the original article the Times wrote this:

Some Democrats were urging Mr. Obama’s campaign not to underestimate the potential power of Ms. Palin’s electrifying speech to the Republican convention on Wednesday night even among voters not aligned with either party: On liberal talk-radio shows and on left-leaning blogs on Thursday, some Democrats fretted that the Obama campaign should fight back hard to avoid being caricatured as Senator John Kerry was four years ago.

Then a little while later it was changed to this:

Some Democrats were urging Mr. Obama’s campaign not to underestimate the potential power of Ms. Palin’s speech, even among voters not aligned with either party: On liberal talk-radio shows and on left-leaning blogs, some Democrats said the Obama campaign should fight back hard to avoid being caricatured as Senator John Kerry was four years ago when he ran against President Bush.

Whoa! That was a close one. They can’t let people think her speech was ‘electrifying’ it could have negative consequences for Barack Obama! There’s no telling how many people may have seen that word before it could be removed.

I can’t imagine how many puff pieces they’re gonna have to write for Obama to make up for such a careless mistake.

(Hat tip to Patterico’s Pontifications)

Were The McCain Protesters Using MSNBC Badges?

Chris Jones — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 18:39:24 +0000

Rumors are swirling around the Internet that the morons from Code Pink who interrupted John McCain’s speech last night were able to get in to the convention hall using MSNBC badges. It was well publicized that security was extremely tight at the convention and badges were individually bar coded, so did someone at MSNBC give those lunatics badges?

Shay over at Booker Rising has some very interesting details on this:

Sen. McCain’s speech kept getting interrupted early on with “USA, USA” chants by convention attendees. There were two or three anti-war protesters, who were located in one of the sections behind the stage. They managed to get to the second level of the convention hall, which they couldn’t have done without a media outlet providing them with credentials because security tightened after Day 1.

…I took the shuttle bus back to Minneapolis, and I overheard a convention organizer named Phil telling a convention delegate that the protesters on Wednesday night got through because of media credentials that were traced back to MSNBC (he told her that each credential has an individual bar code for each convention invitee). They suspect MSNBC this time as well.

Shay writes a pretty detailed account of his experience at the convention and the above gem was included in that. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if those scumbags at NBC did something like that. NBC officially stopped being a news organization a while back, and are now simply an extension of the far left of the Democratic Party.

Can you imagine the outcry if Fox News would have given passes to some anti-Obama group so they could raise a ruckus? The far left would have gone wild and called for prosecuting the staffers responsible for handing out the badges.

What pathetic as*holes.

(hat tip to NewsBusters)

Audio: Olbermann Has ‘Open Mic’ Moment

Chris Jones — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:17:07 +0000

Keith Olbermann finds it personally offensive when anyone says anything that could even remotely be perceived as criticism of his Barack Obama. He is and has always been in the tank for Obama just like his sidekick Chris Matthews.

During last night’s coverage of the DNC, when Olbermann threw it to Joe Scarborough for some on the floor analysis, Olby made a crappy remark when he thought his mic was off and Joe responded directly to it on the air. In short, it was beautiful.

Oh yeah, and if you thought Olbermann’s Obama worship couldn’t get any worse, then you missed him getting choked up after Michelle Obama’s speech.

What a tool.

EDWARDS ADMITS AFFAIR

Chris Jones — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:20:58 +0000

In an interview to air tonight on ABC, John Edwards admits to having affair and admits he lied about it.

In an interview for broadcast tonight on Nightline, Edwards told ABC News correspondent Bob Woodruff he did have an affair with 44-year old Rielle Hunter, but said that he did not love her.

He also acknowledges that his wife was unaware of his meeting at the hotel where he was confronted by reporters from The National Enquirer.

Edwards is denying the report that he paid Hunter any money to keep quite, but says it’s possible some of his friends or surrogates paid her money.

L.A. Times Blog Acknowledges Edwards Scandal By Posting A Link — Now That’s Brave

Chris Jones — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 18:53:14 +0000

I just love how all of the sudden the media is suffering an attack of conscience. 365 days a year the media act like soulless vultures feasting on every aspect of the lives of public figures — especially conservative ones. Facts have long been irrelevant, all the media has ever needed is a whiff of speculation for a front page story.

Remember the NY Times attack on John McCain? A couple of unnamed disgruntled former aides said that maybe he could have had an inappropriate affair with a lobbyist. No one saw an affair, heard about an affair, or caught McCain having an affair with the lobbyist, but the word of two former aides that it could have happened is all the Times needed for a front page story.

Some months later John Edwards, Mr. Poverty, Mr. liberal Democrat gets busted by reporters at 2:00 am visiting his love child and mistress. He runs and hides out in the men’s room until security can escort him from the building and no one in the media dares breathe a word about it. The L.A. times, NY Times, and every other media outlet is suddenly concerned with “getting all the facts” and not “rushing to judgment.”

Fox News interviewed the security guard at the hotel who rescued Edwards from the bathroom and he confirmed what the National Enquirer originally reported. Still the media remains silent, not comfortable that all the facts are in yet.

Give me a break! This is one of the most incredible examples of media corruption in history. It’s so obvious that the media is treating this with kid gloves, because it’s John Edwards. If this story would’ve been about Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, or anyone with an (R) next to their name this would have been front page coast to coast.

Finally the LA Times blog acknowledges the story not by posting it, but putting up a link with a caveat.

We have decided to post, on Top of the Ticket, an item and link to a Charlotte Observer report, quoting Democratic supporters of Edwards on the record as saying that they think he needs to address the National Enquirer report if he hopes to speak at the convention. While we have stayed away from that Enquirer report, because we couldn’t confirm it, this strikes us as a legitimate story — that on-the-record Dems, including a former Edwards campaign manager, are criticizing Edwards’ decision to stay mum on the topic and saying it might affect his credibility enough that he wouldn’t get a speaking slot at the convention. (Those speaking slots haven’t been decided yet, the party says.)

So the LA Times still refuses to cover the story, but acknowledges that Edwards may not be able to speak at the Democratic convention because of the story — the story they won’t cover.

I actually think the media’s continued refusal to cover the story is beginning to eclipse the story itself. John Edwards is being allowed a free pass for his abhorrent behavior and outrageous hypocrisy.

This clown is in the running for VP or Attorney General and he thinks nothing of cheating on his wife while she’s sick with cancer? Maybe it’s just me, but that’s sure as hell not change I can believe in.

(hat tip Jossip)

(image via Co-Ed Magazine)

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