So the Washington Post got busted for its pay-to-play scheme. But publisher Katharine Weymouth clearly doesn’t see the problem — to hear it from her, the newspaper’s pitch to corporate and lobbiyst donors wasn’t fundamentally corrupt, it just needed to be fine tuned.
The Post (like other newspapers) is broke and is desperately looking for sources of revenue. What other integrity-compromising schemes is the business side cooking up? From what I hear, reporters at the newspaper have been asked (and refused) to allow their news stories to be used in advertorial supplements. They have also been asked to write blogs tailored to generate advertising revenue, which seems like a very slippery slope.
It’s going to be very difficult for the newspaper to cover influence and access peddling, when it is seeking to perfect those methods for its own financial benefit.
