DeLong To Collender_ The Washington Post Isn't Worth It | Capital Gains and Games

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DeLong To Collender: The Washington Post Isn't Worth It | Capital Gains and Games

8/5/09 10:30 PM

Grasping Reality with Both Hands The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: A Fair, Balanced, Reality-Based, and More than Two-Handed Look at the World J. Bradford DeLong, Department of Economics, U.C. Berkeley #3880, Berkeley, CA 94720-3880; 925 708 0467; delong@econ.berkeley.edu.

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DeLong To Collender: The Washington Post Isn't Worth It | Capital Gains and Games Stan Collender writes: DeLong To Collender: The Washington Post Isn't Worth It: Over at his own blog, Brad DeLong argues that my post on The Washington Post was wrong. He doesn't disagree with my basic point that the Post didn't need to apologize for its plan to monetarize its assets by charging lobbyists and others a fee to attend dinners at its publisher's home, he just doesn't wants to enable the Post by creating a new source of revenue for a newspaper whose reporting and analysis he http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/08/delong-to-collender-the-washington-post-isnt-worth-it-capital-gains-and-games.html

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DeLong To Collender: The Washington Post Isn't Worth It | Capital Gains and Games

8/5/09 10:30 PM

doesn't wants to enable the Post by creating a new source of revenue for a newspaper whose reporting and analysis he finds dismal. Someone please remind me not ever to get on Brad's bad side. Well, I said that the Post's plan to monetize its assets for charging lobbyists for access to Katharine Weymouth's dinner table is no more reprehensible than Katharine Graham's practice of allowing friend-lobbyists like Tommy the Cork access to her dinner table for free. I'm not sure what I think. But I do know that it is the striking contrast between the level of White House and budget coverage provided by non-Post reporters like Stan Collender and the level of reporting provided by the Post (with rare exceptions: Steve Pearlstein and Dan froomkin come to mind) that makes me think that additional financial resources for the Post are not a good thing for humanity... rated (4.55) by 4 people like you [How? ] You might like:

Selling Access to Katharine Weymouth's Dinner Table (@this site) DeLong Smackdown Watch (Reconciliation Bill Version) (@this site) 2 more recommended posts Âť Brad DeLong on August 02, 2009 at 09:10 PM in Information: Better Press Corps/Journamalism | Permalink TrackBack TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00e551f08003883401157254fe68970b Listed below are links to weblogs that reference DeLong To Collender: The Washington Post Isn't Worth It | Capital Gains and Games:

Comments You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post. Maybe I'm just stupid. In the phrase "monetarize its assets," isn't the "asset" in question "people's desire to lobby us for better coverage"? And they consider catering to that desire to be part of the legitimate business ends of a news broadcaster? I can't come up with a way that doesn't sound sleazy. Am I missing something? Do newspapers and networks regularly "monetarize their assets" in the same way that politicians do? By selling access and lobbying opportunities for money in exchanges that always border on, but never quite provably cross over into, quid pro quo exchanges of money for influence? Posted by: Patrick | August 03, 2009 at 09:36 AM I don't see how a newspaper can do what WaPo intended, and it not corrupt their news and editorializing (even more). Posted by: Neil B ♪ | August 03, 2009 at 10:32 AM Perhaps money doesn't flow as freely through the different divisions of The Washington Post Company as I think it might, but if it is possible for the company to use profits from Kaplan to reinvest in the newspaper and its web site, the fact that it was planning to whore itself out is even less excusable. The Post and The Wall Street Journal, by way of Kaplan and NewsCorp, have what few other major papers have: some breathing room. The New York Times, for instance, doesn't have much else subsidizing its losses. Budgets clearly aren't limitless, but if it's possible to expand the news organization's reach, both in the D.C.-Metro area and nationally, that's exactly what it should be doing. There are ways, such as firing the dead weight and hiring capable, eager but also younger talent to cover the news at a reduced cost, to do this without breaking the bank. I just don't expect it to happen. Posted by: Brian J | August 03, 2009 at 10:43 AM http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2009/08/delong-to-collender-the-washington-post-isnt-worth-it-capital-gains-and-games.html

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DeLong To Collender: The Washington Post Isn't Worth It | Capital Gains and Games

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