Post publisher apologizes for plan to broker lawmaker meetings
By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
July 6, 2009
Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth apologized Sunday for a plan to broker a series of private "salons" in which business executives would pay up to $250,000 to meet with influential policymakers and Post journalists.
The mea culpa came days after the emergence of a promotional flier that offered an off-the-record dinner at Weymouth's home to discuss health care reform with "key Obama Administration and Congressional leaders," as well as the paper's editors and reporters.
But Weymouth's account did little to placate the hundreds of Post readers who posted overwhelmingly negative remarks on the paper's Web site. Many responders called for her to resign, and others challenged her version of events.
One reader wrote: "At any credible business a team would be at work at present clearing Ms. Weymouth's personal effects from her cubicle." Another called the letter a "stomach-turning non-apology."
One reader wrote: "At any credible business a team would be at work at present clearing Ms. Weymouth's personal effects from her cubicle." Another called the letter a "stomach-turning non-apology."
The Post scrapped the idea after Politico first reported on the flier Thursday.
Weymouth, in a letter to readers seeking to contain the backlash, apologized for "a planned new venture that went off track and for any cause we may have given you to doubt our independence and integrity." Though the meetings were to take place in her home, Weymouth denied approving the final pitch, which she has said was sent out by a marketing staffer.
"The flier was not approved by me or newsroom editors, and it did not accurately reflect what we had in mind," she wrote. "But let me be clear: The flier was not the only problem. Our mistake was to suggest that we would hold and participate in an off-the-record dinner with journalists and power brokers paid for by a sponsor."
Weymouth's disavowal appeared to conflict with a Los Angeles Times report that invitations to two lawmakers -- Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., and Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine -- to attend a July 21 dinner were sent from her personal e-mail.
A Post spokeswoman could not be reached for comment Sunday.
