Today's New York Times includes a "post-script" to the paper's Sept.12 piece that reported on the resignation of Charles Pelton, the former Washington Post executive at the center of the salon-gate controversy. In July, Politico broke news that the Post planned to host private dinners at the home of Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth, where corporate sponsors could mingle with Post journalists and senior Obama administration officials and policy-makers in an off-the-record setting.
In the original Sept. 12 article on Pelton’s departure from the Post, the Times' media reporter, Richard Perez-Pena, wrote that Pelton hadn't informed Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli that the dinners would be "off the record." Pena's piece was based on an interview he had done in July, when Brauchli claimed he did not know about the dinner's off-the-record status. The Times piece, along with Brauchli's prior public statements, left many with the impression that Pelton was a rogue operative inside the Post who orchestrated the cozy confabs without explaining the terms to Brauchli or publisher Katharine Weymouth. When Politico first broke the scandal on July 2, Brauchli and Weymouth were able to create distance between them and the brouhaha: it was the off-the-record nature of the dinners, and the appearance that the Post was selling access to its newsroom and top Obama officials, that became the flashpoint. Pelton took the fall as the guy charged with planning the whole thing.
Well, that’s the way I read the headline in The Washington Post.
“Russia Dismisses Iran Sanctions” was how it was actually written, followed by “Russian Foreign Minister: Threats of Iran Sanctions Won’t Work.” The dispatch is from Mary Beth Sheridan, a savvy reporter to whom I’m becoming attached. There are slight differences between the Post piece and the report in the Times, “Russia Resists U.S. Position on Sanctions for Iran,” by Mark Landler and Clifford J. Levy. Then there was “US, Russia: Iran No sanctions yet” in The Jerusalem Post. I read the Post headline a bit differently: “No sanctions, period” is how it looked to me.
Mrs. Clinton can make a cupcake out of a turd, and she has. From the Jerusalem paper:
US President Barack Obama - who visited Russia in July - has vowed to “reset” US-Russia relations. On Tuesday, Clinton apologized for missing that meeting because of a broken elbow.
“But now both my elbow and our relationships are reset and we’re moving forward, which I greatly welcome,” she said.
She’s gotten a lot of mileage out of that elbow. All right, so it wasn’t a broken vertebra. Still, enough is enough.
And, no, Obama hasn’t reset the American relationship with Russia. He was taken for a ride. Maybe his vanity won’t let him admit it. But, believe me, the Russians know they have taken him (and us) for a big ride, indeed.
This morning's Washington Post has a front-page article by Lois Romano proclaiming "Ideology Aside, This is the Year of the Woman." For those who want a slightly different take, I highly recommend Michelle Cottle's excellent piece.
Shortly before George W. Bush's second inauguration, The Washington Post sent one of its best reporters into the heart of America to explore the "Red Sea"--that uncharted territory populated with those great unknowns who had recently voted to reelect the president. "[W]e were tired of hearing pundits tell us about 'Red America' and wanted a firsthand look," the paper's explorer declared. Here is what he discovered: "I found ordinary people with various motivations, sundry stories, personal beliefs, custom-made decisions.
