Washington Post columnist David Broder, often referred to as the "dean" of the D.C. press corps, is a regular source of irritation and exasperation here, as he routinely dresses up Republican talking points as "centrist" conventional wisdom.
But now an investigation by Harper's Magazine online columnist Ken Silverstein reveals that "Dean" Broder has been reaping lecture fees and enjoying fancy junkets from corporate and lobbying interests -- without revealing these conflicts of interest to his readers:
[Broder] appears to be a regular presence these days on the business lecture circuit, and has even spoken to major health care groups. Do a Google search and you’ll see that Broder is represented by a number of speaker’s bureaus, including Grabow, which says it is “your David Broder booking agent for private corporate events.”
More on Broder's hidden conflicts -- and his hypocritical public stance on journalists receiving such perks -- after the jump...
Silverstein uncovers at least one instance where Broder accepted a speaking gig on a topic he wrote about in his Post column:
At last October’s Western Conference of Prepaid Medical Service Plans, “an organization comprised of 31 member companies, primarily Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans, principally located throughout the Western United States and Canada.” The event was held at the La Quinta Resort & Spa, “a legendary hideaway and meeting destination, renowned since 1926 for its charm and serenity. La Quinta Resort & Club features 90 holes of some of the country’s best golf…[and] a variety of unique indoor and outdoor treatments including PGA WEST Golf Massage, open-air Celestial Showers Sacred Stone Massage and more.”
According to a draft agenda, Broder was set to speak on October 16. Two days earlier, Broder wrote a column for the Post called “A Market Makeover For Health Insurance,” which hailed the release of a new report by the Committee for Economic Development (CED), “a high-powered business group,” which called on “government to restructure the private insurance market in less rigid form than Hillary Clinton proposed 14 years ago–and then step back and let competitive market forces do their invaluable work of forcing recalcitrant insurers, doctors and hospitals to bid against each other on the basis of price and quality.”
Silverstein concludes:
Putting aside the merits of the CED plan and Blue Cross’s position on it, shouldn’t Broder have at least disclosed that he was speaking at the La Quinta Conference?
Indeed he should have... The Harper's article goes on to document a host of other cushy corporate gigs for Broder, including speaking engagements with:
- The National Association of Manufacturers at an Amelia Island resort;
- A November 2007 Healthcare Summit at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa, "Catalyzing Collaboration Between Healthcare Providers and Insurers";
- A fundraiser for the political action committee (PAC) of the Northern Virginia Association of Realtors;
- The 2006 annual meeting of the American Council for Capital Formation, a group which lobbies for so-called “pension reform” and which opposes "windfall profit taxes on the oil industry."
Silverstein also catches The Dean in a stunning hypocrisy, digging up this statement by Broder in a 1996 PBS Frontline documentary on why "Americans Hate the Press":
It’s clear that some journalists now are in a market category where the amount of money that they can make on extracurricular activities raises, in my mind, exactly, and, clearly, in the public’s mind, exactly the same kind of conflict-of-interest questions that we are constantly raising with people in public life….
People think that we are part of the establishment and therefore part of the problem. I mean, what bothers me is the notion that journalists believe, or some journalists believe, that they can have their cake and eat it too, that you can have all of the special privileges, access and extraordinary freedom that you have because you are a journalist operating in a society which protects journalism to a greater degree than any other country in the world, and at the same time you can be a policy advocate. You can be a public performer on the lecture circuit or television. I think that’s greedy.
Ouch. If David Broder wants to know why Americans hate the press, he might begin by looking in the mirror.
UPDATE: Silverstein has posted a second item about similar extracurricular corporate activities by the WaPo's Bob Woodward, appearing before groups such as The American Council of Life Insurers, described as “a unified voice on issues from retirement security to taxes to international trade ... [advocating] the shared interests of our member companies and their policyholders before federal and state legislators, regulators, and courts.”
NOTE: Silverstein says at the end of the new Woodward item that he is going to be writing more on this topic shortly.