WaPo's Publisher Sold Her Paper's Editorial Integrity

New York Times:

Katharine Weymouth, the relatively new publisher of The Washington Post, is a lawyer who worked for the company for 12 years and was educated at the Harvard School of Business, so she is hardly a naïf in running a business.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Village]

First, she's a legacy. She didn't earn her way into any Ivy League school.

Her grandmother is rolling over in her grave.

[WTEffington]

I've had my doubts about WaPo since their op-ed section started looking like a paid advertisement for the American Enterprise Institute.

[SiberianRat]

Yikes! Yeah, that's a bad sign for sure.

[HekmabaJuzimax]

She's perfect for the job because she resembles a Doonesbury cartoon. Her exploits can be neatly summarized on one Sunday strip.

[RobRokoli]

There are few deadly sins of commission in journalism: fabricating, plagiarism and offering one's integrity for sale. Among the deadliest sins of omission is absence of judgment. A news organization has no currency greater than its integrity.

What rationale can there be for Weymouth's initiative beyond wholesale influence peddling, unless an intent to offer resources aimed at schooling political lobbyists in strategies to "beat the press?" (Though it would be naive to assert political lobbyists are not already schooled in that craft).

Katherine Weymouth sold her paper's honor whether or not money changed hands. Her lack of judgment, her disregard for the stature of the Post reveals her better suited to the selling of hamburgers and fries than the operation of a major news paper. Her failure to anticipate the consequences exposes a narrow perspective rooted in hucksterism, and evidence she is unsuited to her position, throwing into question the competency of those who appointed her and casting doubt on the quality of a Harvard Business School education. Whatever vestiges remain of the honor attached to the Washington Post from Watergate have fallen to the stuff of archaeology. That Weymouth descends from the family that took the Post to its acme, recalls Galton's work, "Progression Toward Mediocrity in Hereditary Stature." To whatever degree Richard Nixon may have blamed the Post for his political demise, his ghost may rest in the solace of redress and closure.

[JakeMontero]

pot meet kettle

[sleepdawg]

Exactly. How to read this, coming from the same newspaper that proffered Judith Miller and continues to defend her to this day. How about an apology in your culpability in the deaths of over 1 million Iraqis from the invasion you helped to cheerlead, New York Times?

[JBS]

Sold her soul
for lobbyist's gold.

[Realist]

LOL! So the Washington Post wants to become a democratic lobbyist where "play-to-play" is free speach. haahahhahahahahah what a joke the inside the beltway political corrupt class has become. When the granddaughter of the publisher's founder cannot see ethics in journalism, who is I believe a Stamford Law graduate, we all should take note this July 4th how far this once beautiful idea of Liberty has fallen at the hands of a greedy, selfish, narccistic class of people. LOL! This JUly 4 stick a fork in Amerika and get the passport ready sheeple because is this is what our nation's newspapers are mustering up before the inevitable bail out of the very corrupt class of publisher Weymouth proves herself to be.God Bless Us All. But again, LOL at how far the fine Grahmn family has fallen to turn their newspaper into the equivalent of a late night infomercial diary of a nation falling at the hands of a greedy oligarchic few. Did I say what a joke the publisher and the Washington Post?

[Goliadkin]

There's no such thing as journalism anymore. The people who pass themselves off as writers can't write--let alone think independently, the newspapers and magazines can't afford to pay them anyway, and the internet is an unedited, snarkaholic free-for-all. (Yes, I am as guilty as anyone else.) We seem to be approaching a kind of information apocalypse that may, while inundating us with "news," plunge us into a new Dark Ages of ignorance and uncertainty.

On the other hand, there may be something new abirthing, though we can't quite see what it is yet. The Twittering out of Iran gives a hint of the power of social networks. Amazon Kindle and Google Books, despite their current "me-first" business models, might one day provide an equitable and remunerative outlet for those who really have something on their minds, and the ability to put it into words. YouTube is fun, free, and a great substitute for the banality of network/cable TV. I'm sure there's much more on the horizon.

Where is it all leading? No one knows for sure! But I'm planning on sticking around as long as I can, to see how it all unfolds. That's this sexist/nar­cissist/om­nivore/bod­hisattva's plan for the near term.

Love and peace to all of you here at the 'Po. Even you, thenextquagmire.

[marignymitch]

WaPo hasn't had integrity since the grand old days of Katerine Graham. Golly, I miss her.

NYT: Can you spell Judith Miller or William Kristol?

[Fernando]

Compared to the emasculation of the press in the previous eight years, this is pretty small potatoes. This is hardly relevant.

[JBS]

In light of the last eight years, it's extremely relevant. They slipped up this time and made the sell-out blatantly obvious.

[damilitantone]

Back in the day, we used to get the Washington Post in the morning and the Evening Star in the afternoon. I used to look forward to reading those papers. The cr@p that they try to sell us today is not worth the paper it's printed on. The only ones to blame are the papers themselves and they can all go out of business as far as I'm concerned.

[formerbeliever]

Pot, meet Kettle

[damilitantone]

Touche!

[wadenelson1]

America HAD a free press but it whored itself out to the highest bidders.

What we have left is the Internet. Sites like Huffpo. Thank goodness.

Even if Internet blogs overflow with comments by trolls, tin-hatters, industry PR people, and those so lacking in intelligence (or grammar) they can't even make a good argument, somehow the truth seems to filter through. The voice of the people of America.

[CheshireCat2]

Our Fourth Estate is in shambles and no I am not talking about on of JMc's houses.

[CheshireCat2]

Only reinforcing the obvious.

[Village]

Hey NYT, may I introduce you to Scooter and Judy?

You beat WaPo by several years in the loss of integrity department.

Hypocrisy. What's for lunch.