Post Ombudsman Covers Dinnergate

Washington Post Ombudsman Andrew Alexander offers a thorough report on the Dinnergate scandal today. He details participation by four newsroom editors in planning the event, none of whom said it was wrong prior to the scandal's surfacing in Politico. Alexander writes, "By having outside underwriters, The Post was effectively charging for access to its newsroom personnel. Reporters or editors could easily be perceived as being in the debt of the sponsors. And by promising participants that their conversations would be private, those attending would be assured a measure of confidentiality that the news department typically opposes." This is a must-read.