8:45 am in Uncategorized by Gregg Levine
Entrance to the New York Times building, NYC. (photo: niallkennedy)
Those with a nose for dead trees might recall a scandal from the summer of 2009 that sullied the reputation of the Washington Post. Back then, the Post Company sent out fliers touting exclusive dinners at the home of Post publisher Katharine Weymouth that “offered corporate underwriters access to Post journalists, Obama administration officials and members of Congress in exchange for payments as high as $250,000.” When word got out, the Post cancelled the dinners, initially blaming the company’s marketing department (though later reporting showed Weymouth and WaPo’s executive editor Marcus Brauchli knew more about the confabs than they initially let on). The White House also claimed that it had not authorized any officials to participate in these “salons.”
Remember? If you were a critic of the “leftwing media,” this was proof positive of the cozy relationship between the new Democratic administration and the Beltway’s company newsletter; if you were suspicious of the establishment media for its close corporate ties and naked attempts to curry favor with political elites, these planned dinner parties had it all, from aperitifs to the final bill. It really was a fetid swamp, even for swampland.
Flash forward a few years, grab a Metroliner north, and behold this:
U.S. Secretary of Energy, energy economist Daniel Yergin and former Petrobras CEO Jose Sergio Gabrielli de Azevedo are among the speakers at tomorrow’s (Wednesday’s) The New York Times Energy for Tomorrow conference. The conference has been created in collaboration with Richard Attias and Associates.
More than 400 corporate and political leaders, as well as NGOs, academics and energy experts will debate the most pressing issues and opportunities facing the energy sector today. GE is the founding sponsor of The New York Times Energy for Tomorrow, with BMW and Louisiana Economic Development as supporting sponsors.
Gerald Marzorati, editor for The New York Times who is responsible for creating The Times’s conferences, said: “With rising prices, energy is at the top of the agenda – both economically and politically – around the world. The supply picture is changing in the United States, with new sources of oil and natural gas.
“There is also the debate over the environmental impact of energy extraction and production, and the role of efficiency in making sure there will be enough energy to meet growing global needs.”
(That was last Wednesday, April 11, by the way.)
This was an invitation-only event. What, you weren’t invited? Well, then, who was? Read the rest of this entry →
Tags: Andrew McKillop, AP1000, Bambi Meets Godzilla, Bill Magwood, Book Salon, climate change, corporate media, Daniel Yergin, energy, Energy for Tomorrow, establishment media, Firedoglake, fracking, Fukushima, gas, Gregory Jaczko, Martin Cohen, Matt Wald, New York Times, NRC, Nuclear Power, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, oil, pay to play, Richard Attias, salon, Steven Chu, The Doomsday Machine, Times Forum, Washington Post
