America’s dying mainstream press is fretting as to explain why it has so little credibility and why so many are tuning out. The common refrain was that people have dumb-downed and just do not care about serious journalism. A newer effort to explain one’s own demise is that the bloggers are to blame with the free citation of stories that journalists work so hard on. All this is a convenient excuse for journalists to cover up for their declining professionalism.

American journalism is a shell of its former self. The days of the Pentagon Papers, Vietnam and Watergate are long gone. No longer do most mainstream journalists work tirelessly to fact check and hold the offices of power accountable. Today, too many journalists are interested in being the news - celebrity journalism such as David Gregory and Brian Williams - and not reporting news critically. Too many journalists give government the benefit of the doubt. And too many journalists willingly trade critical coverage for access to power-brokers. Many journalists do not understand the the role of a journalist is not just to secure interviews with presidents, but to ask critical questions.

But the Washington media establishment is closer to power and almost in sync with it that it has become decadent and too intertwined with the political establishment to be able to write critically about it. Journalists dine in the same restaurants as politicians and go to the same parties, the days of the journalist standing from afar and writing with a sceptically has now become a minority phenomenon. Nothing illustrates just how pathetic the Washington media establishment has become then this story about what the Washington Post, the capital’s most important story and a neo-conservative rag:

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive “salon” at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and 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.”

The Washington Post is now behaving like a K Street lobby firm and not a medium of journalism, using its standing to connect wealthy people to the holders of power. And although the Post has canceled this event, this is something they actually intend to do in the future:

She made it clear however, that The Post, which lost $19.5 million in the first quarter, sees bringing together Washington figures as a future revenue source. “We do believe that there is a viable way to expand our expertise into live conferences and events that simply enhances what we do - cover Washington for Washingtonians and those interested in Washington,” she said. “ And we will begin to do live events in ways that enhance our reputation and in no way call into question our integrity.”

This is the face of the Washington establishment. And o’ no I do not “call into question [the] integrity” of the WP, I now they do not have any in the first place.