It appears that the Washington Post is selling access to, for sums in excess of $25,000.00, access to the “powerful few” in DC:

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post has offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to “those powerful few”: Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and — at first — even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

It appears that WaPo executive editor Marcus Brauchli has circulated a memo saying that members of the news department are prohibited from attending, which is unsurprising, since they got caught.

Normally, I wouldn’t expect journalists to turn down free food.