Loose Lips Sink Ships Anyone?

I cannot imagine why the Obama Administration would tell the world that we have infiltrated Al Qaeda. Unless it's to prove that they're not really the panty wastes we all think they are. This reminds of Jimmy Carter revealing the super top secret B-2 bomber program to prove to the world that he was actually doing something on behalf of our national defense.

New York Time Puts Washington Post Pay For Play On Page One

Bill Keller is enjoying this. Maybe the Post should put this story about the New York Times on their front page.

Where George W. Bush’s team made a show of not caring about the Times, aides in this White House treat the paper with a deference that James Reston himself would have appreciated.

Young aides boast about how social networking helped President Barack Obama first win the presidency and now promotes his message outside the filter of mainstream journalism. The president grants interviews to Hispanic journalists on Univision and calls on reporters from newcomers like Huffington Post (and POLITICO) at news conferences.

But for all its new media airs, the new White House team remains in the thrall of perhaps the most emblematic old media institution of all.

Senior Obama officials during the transition posed for Times Sunday Magazine portraits and then opened the doors again with top-level access for another major magazine piece this month on health care. Midlevel officials cooperate for Times profiles detailing their key behind-the-scenes roles.

Even routine news stories buried deep inside the A-section of the Times often quote high-level sources speaking both on and off the record.

Quite obviously, Obama is cultivating favorable coverage in the Times as well. Surely the unspoken message is that this easy access is dependent upon favorable treatment by the Times - not that the Times needs any encouragement to carry Obama's water.

What Did Obama Expect In Return From The Post?

Okay, it was clearly unethical for the Washington Post to arrange meetings between lobbyists and Obama Administration officials. But, what did Obama expect in return? The Post has been hemorrhaging dollars and would clearly appreciate any help with their cash flow. If Barack Obama could steer a few million their way by providing cabinet members for these salons, don't you think that he'd expect a little favorable coverage in return?

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.

International Jew Banker Conspiracy Claims Another

Charles Freeman blames the Joos for his downfall.

What's striking about the charges by Mr. Freeman and like-minded conspiracy theorists is their blatant disregard for such established facts. Mr. Freeman darkly claims that "it is not permitted for anyone in the United States" to describe Israel's nefarious influence. But several of his allies have made themselves famous (and advanced their careers) by making such charges -- and no doubt Mr. Freeman himself will now win plenty of admiring attention. Crackpot tirades such as his have always had an eager audience here and around the world. The real question is why an administration that says it aims to depoliticize U.S. intelligence estimates would have chosen such a man to oversee them.

Of course, in the interest of being fair and balance, the Post's Walter Pincus seems to think that there is some merit to Freeman's paranoia.

The withdrawal of a senior intelligence adviser after an online campaign to prevent him from taking office has ignited a debate over whether powerful pro-Israel lobbying interests are exercising outsize influence over who serves in the Obama administration.