Media

Washington Post sells access, $25,000+
By Mike Allen, Politico

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

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

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.

Helen Thomas hits White House for lack of transparency
By David Edwards and Daniel Tencer | RawStory | Video

At the White House presser on Wednesday, several correspondents questioned the way the Oval Office selected questions from the public for today’s virtual town hall.

President Barack Obama answered pre-selected questions Wednesday afternoon about health care sent in from emails, Facebook and Twitter. CBS’ Chip Reid and columnist Helen Thomas thought this reflected a lack of transparency at the White House.

“It feels like the concept of a town hall, I think, is to have an open public forum. And this sounds like a very tightly controlled audience and list of questions. Why do it that way?” asked Reid.

White House press secretary Richard Gibbs deflected the question, but that only raised the ire of Helen Thomas, UPI’s veteran correspondent who has long been at the top of the White House press corps totem pole.

“We have never had that in the White House,” Thomas said, referring to the degree that press events are pre-scripted in the Obama administration. “I’m amazed, I’m amazed at you people who called for openness and transparency...” Read more.

By Norman Solomon

The New York Times used three square inches of newsprint on June 30 to dispatch two U.S. Army soldiers under the headline “Names of the Dead.” Their names -- Peter K. Cross and Steven T. Drees -- were listed along with hometowns, ranks and ages. Cross was 20 years old. Drees was 19.

They were, the newspaper reported, the latest of 706 Americans “who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations.” There wasn’t enough room for any numbers, names or ages of Afghans who have died as a part of the Afghan war and related operations.

That’s the way routine death stories go. But of course no amount of newsprint or airtime can do more than scratch the human surface. Reporting on life is like that, and reporting on death is like that: even more so when the media lenses are ground with ideology, nationalism and economic convenience.

Youtube is teaching citizen journalists how to suck as bad as professional reporters. And what an array of hacks there are on offer.

Dana Milbank on how to be an ass.
Bob Woodward on the strength needed to report at least 1/2 block away from the offices of the Washington Post.
Nicholas Kristof on the importance of not getting shot in the head.
Katie Couric on warm body language.
Scott Simon on vivid details.
Tavis Smiley on conversations.
Lizzie O'Leary on finding a person to humanize a preconceived story.
And there are more that may be worse.

And then in a nod to actual journalism, there's:
Associated Press on How to do watchdog journalism.
Arianna Huffington on citizen journalism.
PolitiFact on fact checking.
Uptake on Secrets To Starting A Citizen Journalism Organization.
Somebody on How to Capture Breaking News on Your Cell Phone.
And there are more that may be better. The site keeps crashing my browser.

The story does not say what role in the judges' decision was played by the past five months' revelation that the ads were packaging garbage.

This letter came in from Warren L. Henthorn:

I am Warren L. Henthorn, father of lost soldier Jeffrey S. Henthorn, lost in Iraq 8 Feb 05.

I understand former President Bush is coming to Woodward OK on the 4th of July. Should he be welcomed? No.

This President lead the our military forces into a war of choice, a war that should not have happened, a war that has cost the lives of 4300 plus of U.S. soldiers, 35,000 plus injured, some hurt for the rest of their lives, and countless thousands of Iraqi people killed and wounded.

Does anyone remember the Vietnam war? Another war of choice, 58,000 dead, countless lives ruined to this day, should we celebrate President Bush's legacy? I think not.

Listen here to Lila Garrett's latest show, with David Swanson and other guests. From http://www.kpfk.org