Here’s The Washington Post’s article this morning on its own disastrous disgrace, a flier sent out by its marketing department, obtained and exposed yesterday by Politico.com.

This flier invited people to pay from $25,000 to $250,000 for one “salon” or a series of them at the publisher’s home — the first on health care July 21 — at which lobbyists, administration officials and Post journalists would interact nonconfrontationally and off-the-record.

Selling access to its own journalists and presuming to facilitate access by special interests to the Obama adminsitration — it was the most God-awful thing any serious newspaper journalist could ever imagine, especially from this particular newspaper of such noble history, and it set off my own near-panicked stream of tweets yesterday morning, which you can review here.

Rather quickly yesterday morning, the paper said this was the work of an overly zealous marketing department and that the newsroom was blindsided and that the publisher herself hadn’t vetted the plan. In time, a single marketing fellow came forward to say he did it alone and to throw himself on his sword.

The piece today reveals that one health care industry firm had already anted up and that former congressman Jim Cooper of Tennessee, a moderate Democrat with a deep history on health care policy, had agreed to participate. But the Obama administration said no one had been contacted and, as the plan had been described, the administration would not have participated.

The newsroom of the Post was said, most predictably and understandably, to be outraged. I can imagine.

Still curious is the paper’s stated intention to go forward with other “salons” that wouldn’t offer these blatant journalistic and ethical improprieties.

Newspapers are in financial trouble because of the Internet and the economy. Reliable cash cows are now losing millions. People are freaking out. Hell, I’m freaking. It’s understandable. But to sell your brand and your integrity to special interest money — that is not the answer. That is Waterloo, is what it is.

A crazy blog with libeling anonymous commentators is as good as that kind of newspaper. Better, actually, if the blogger is not selling his content.