Holy crap — conflict of interest, please?

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.

Honestly, the MSM looks down on blogs as some sort of quasi-news sewer, but we’ve haven’t the budget or access to go onboard an ethics Titanic like this. Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth called the event a “salon” — she was seeing dollar signs before the whole shebang was exposed and was canceled.

You see, the WaPo is thirsty for cash (the paper lost $19.5 million in the first quarter). Look at this incredible naked pitch that went out:

“Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate…Underwrite and participate in this intimate and exclusive Washington Post Salon, an off-the-record dinner and discussion at the home of CEO and Publisher Katharine Weymouth. … Bring your organization’s CEO or executive director literally to the table. Interact with key Obama administration and congressional leaders.”

Incredible.