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Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / 81 and still turning tricks

81 and still turning tricks

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You may remember the David Broder speaking fee mini-scandal from a few years back (I helped write a short summary of this on his wiki). The Post ombudsman of the time, Deborah Howell, did a pretty good job of whacking Broder and Post management over it:

Broder should have followed his own and The Post’s rules. Woodward’s case is somewhat different, but [then executive editor Len] Downie would like to know and should know what groups Woodward is speaking to in case he wants to object. Woodward’s name and The Post’s are synonymous, and whatever Woodward does is associated with the paper, even if he’s rarely there.

Most of all, The Post needs an unambiguous, transparent well-known policy on speaking fees and expenses. It should deal with charities and those on contract. Approvals for speeches that involve fees should be sought and given in writing by a high-ranking editor. Fees should be accepted only from educational, professional or other nonprofit groups for which lobbying and politics are not a major focus — with no exceptions.

Nothing has changed:

Last May, Broder was the keynote speaker at a May 19 to 21 conference sponsored by GenSpring Family Offices, “a leading wealth management firm for ultra-high net worth families. With over $20 billion in assets under advisement, GenSpring…is trusted by more than 700 of the world’s wealthiest families to oversee or manage important aspects of their financial lives.” GenSpring is an affiliate of SunTrust Banks, which lobbies congress.

I guess one thing has changed, though: the Post now has an ombudsman who won’t write about this unless we can get Andrew Breitbart to start covering it. My guess is that Andy Alexander never touches this, now matter now many emails he gets about it. I just sent him an email about it — no reply so far.

Update. Just got an out-of-office reply from the ombudsman. This of course makes it that much more likely that he will never cover it.

Reader Interactions

36Comments

  1. 1.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    OT: I still can’t access this blog from my home PC. I tried disconnecting my modem for 18 hours, I unplugged the router and cleared the browsing data and still nothing.

    Any other ideas?

  3. 3.

    DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    I don’t know, mine started working again last week after going through the same thing. My guess is that your IP is banned by the Firewall. Try emailing John about this.

  4. 4.

    MattF

    In principle, there’s a long list of people that the Post should show the door to. E.g., “David! The door is over there!”, “Bob! The door is over there!”, etc. Unfortunately, after they’ve all left, the building will be empty.

  5. 5.

    NobodySpecial

    Hey, hookers have to eat, too. When they show ribs, it’s bad for business.

    WaPo, keep your hookers fat and sassy!

  10. 10.

    Cat Lady

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    Same thing with me. I can only access it at home with a proxy server, and they all kinda suck in their own way. I have Comcast, west of Boston. I have no problems at all with ISPs in other locations.

  11. 11.

    MattR

    GenSpring…is trusted by more than 700 of the world’s wealthiest families to oversee or manage important aspects of their financial lives.

    Based on the reporting by the Washington Post and Keith Olbermann, I wonder how many of the 700 qualify as “small businesses”

  13. 13.

    eemom

    I gotta admit when I saw “Broder” and “81” I thought for a fleeting moment that he had, um, “gone to join” Tim Russert. Oh well.

  14. 14.

    Roger Moore

    @MattF:

    Unfortunately, after they’ve all left, the building will be empty.

    The news desk may be empty, but I’m sure there are some janitors and secretaries who deserve better.

  15. 15.

    cat48

    DougJ, Your hateful to this poor little old man whose broke because when the Kenyan usurper put GM thru bankruptcy it was a real tragedy for him. His parents gave him GM stock for high school graduation and alas: It was worth more when it was received as a gift than when it was put thru bankruptcy 100 yrs. later. Don’t you understand what he’s going thru now?

    Did you not read that column??

  16. 16.

    eemom

    @MattR:

    I don’t like Olbermann very often anymore, but that “small business” segment was fucking. awesome.

    If only there were a way to make it required viewing on every channel of every teevee of every dense-ass “low information” voter.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @eemom:

    I don’t like Olbermann very often anymore, but that “small business” segment was fucking. awesome.

    agreed and agreed. David K. Johnston should be a household name.
    @cat48: Honest to god?

  18. 18.

    Ash Can

    Hey, it doesn’t say he was paid to speak. Maybe he did it for free.

    …HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OK, I tried to keep a straight face, but couldn’t do it.

  19. 19.

    low-tech cyclist

    While Deborah Howell was the WaPo ombudsman apologist, I thought it would be hard for the WaPo to replace her with someone even worse. Andy Alexander has cleared that bar with plenty of room to spare.

  24. 24.

    fourlegsgood

    Hey, can one of you guys with keys start organizing another “call congress” phone campaign like the one we did for HCR?

    It worked. No reason we can’t try it again on the tax bill.

  27. 27.

    Punchy

    Just got an out-of-office reply from the ombudsman. This of course makes it that much more likely that he will never cover it.

    Yup, in the middle of the day, on a Thursday. Exactly when you’d expect peeps to be O^3.

    I’d love it if Dig Dug Jay would actually go into their building and confirm his presence at his desk, bouncing myriad emails back into the tubz.

  30. 30.

    Dennis SGMM

    Broder’s speech was mostly a series of anecdotes about the Founding Fathers. That’s only to be expected from a man who had met most of them.

  33. 33.

    davidj

    I read one Howell column early on (it’s my local rag), decided she was completely worthless, and so didn’t find out until now that she wasn’t after all. _Completely_ worthless, that is.

  34. 34.

    Don

    What difference does it makes if AA covers it or not? The WaPo has made it clear that they pay even less attention to him than they did to Howell.

Comments are closed.