Did Washington Post Executive Editor Lie About Salons To Protect Himself?

Either not everybody at the Washington Post is on the same page about what “off the record” means exactly, or executive editor Marcus Brauchli is a liar: Did he or didn’t he know that the advertised salons would be off the record?

That question and others have come to light after a letter from Brauchli to now-resigned Post marketing director Charles Pelton, saying that he did know after all that the proposed dinners (ultimately aimed at making money) would be off the record, was sent to the Times by Pelton’s lawyer.

Today the New York Times ran a correction pertaining to two of its articles from the summer about the Post’s Salon-gate:

An article on July 3 reported on aborted plans for the publisher of The Washington Post to hold corporate-sponsored dinner parties including Post journalists.

One issue in the controversy was that the dinners were being promoted as “off the record.” The article quoted The Post’s executive editor, Marcus W. Brauchli, as saying that the newsroom would “reserve the right to allow any ideas that emerge in an event to shape or inform our coverage.” By The Post’s definition of the term, that means the events would not be “off the record.”

On Sept. 12, an article in The Times reported that Charles Pelton, the marketing executive at the center of the plans, had resigned from The Post. That article, referring again to Mr. Brauchli’s comments at the time, reported that he said he had not understood that the dinners would be off the record.

However, in a subsequent letter to Mr. Pelton — which was sent to The Times by Mr. Pelton’s lawyer — Mr. Brauchli now says that he did indeed know that the dinners were being promoted as “off the record,” and that he and Mr. Pelton had discussed that issue.

Times spokesperson Diane McNulty told NYT Picker, a blog dedicated to tracking the New York Times which claims to be run anonymously by journalists, that “The note speaks for itself.” That said, the Times also buried the note as a correction.

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