E&P reports that the Post's eight newspaper guild leaders voted unaninomously to get out of sponsoring the Pentagon's march:
Newspaper Guild leaders at The Washington Post on Monday afternoon called on the newspaper to withdraw its sponsorship of a controversial Sept. 11 memorial walk organized by the Department of Defense, which has drawn opposition from several groups for its alleged pro-war tilt.E&P also reports that Howie Kurtz weighed in against supporting the march:
"Basically, the guild is calling for the Post to reconsider and drop sponsorship," said Rick Weiss, a Post reporter and co-chair of the Washington Post unit of the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild Local 32035. "As a matter of maintaining its appearance of neutrality on polarizing issues of policy."
Weiss said eight members of the local's leadership committee met Monday and unanimously passed a resolution asking the paper to drop its support of the event. He said the resolution would be delivered to Post Publisher Bo Jones as soon as possible.
The unit represents more than 1,400 Post employees.
In a related move, Post media writer Howard Kurtz noted his opposition to the Post sponsorship in an online chat with readers today. "I wish The Washington Post were not co-sponsoring this event. It is an operation by the Pentagon -- a place that we devote substantial resources to covering -- and therefore subject to all kinds of interpretations," he said in response to a reader question.That's so obvious, it's almost unbelievable he had to say it.
Pressure's building. One more time, here's John's message from yesterday:
Enough already. It's time for the Washington Post to start acting like a real newspaper again rather than the spokesman for the Bush administration and the Iraq war.
Mr. Bo Jones, Publisher
The Washington Post
1150 15th St NW
Washington DC 20071
jonesb@washpost.com
