Got an extra $25k lying around?

For $25,000 to $250,000, The Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to "those powerful few" — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the paper’s own reporters and editors.

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

The offer — which essentially turns a news organization into a facilitator for private lobbyist-official encounters — is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival.

Well, I never did believe in the high morals of the news media anyway, but still...some folks still live in that dream world. This just bursts their bubble. Mean ol' newspaper folks taking money to set up meetings and gatherings. I suppose there is some consolation that they finally got some gumption and manhood behind them and made their under-the-table dealings public and not just hear-say.