The Mask Is Off: Washington Post Now A Subsidiary Of The Democratic Party

If you're a lobbyist seeking unfettered, non-confrontational access to upper level Obama administration officials, the Washington Post can help - if you're willing to pony up big bucks.

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.

Nothing to see here. Move along, move along.

Update: The Washington Post confirms that is now in the pimp business.

Update 2: The Post has been shamed into canceling.

Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth today canceled plans for a series of policy dinners at her home after learning that marketing fliers offered lobbyists access to Obama administration officials, members of Congress and Post journalists in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.

"Absolutely, I'm disappointed," Weymouth, the chief executive of Washington Post Media, said in an interview. "This should never have happened. The fliers got out and weren't vetted. They didn't represent at all what we were attempting to do. We're not going to do any dinners that would impugn the integrity of the newsroom."

Translation: We're really sorry that we got caught.

Update 3: The White House claims that it knows nothing about it. Are we really supposed to believe that the Washington Post was issuing invitations to an event when it hadn't yet confirmed that Obama Administration officials would be there?

White House officials said privately Thursday that the administration had no idea that the Post was peddling access to its officials.

We'll find out how honest the Post is if it pronounces BS on the Obama Administration. I think that Obama was cultivating the Post the same way that it has been hand feeding the New York Times in exchange for favorable coverage.