Solidarity among the Freedom Fighters ...

Judy Bachrach, "Moscow on the Potomac," World Affairs Journal, via KAE

Because I thought it more than worthwhile to meet Masha Gessen, I accepted with gratitude Victor Ashe’s invitation to join him at a dinner honoring the relatively new director of Radio Liberty’s Russian service. This blog, after all, had featured Gessen on several occasions, generally not in a flattering light. Ashe, once the US ambassador to Poland and now the vice chairman of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Board of Governors, was also a sometime critic of a few RFE/RL top-level employees. He was kind enough to e-mail me a copy of the invitation he accepted for us both (see here [1]). It was definitely time, I decided, to see who Gessen was, hear her speak—and not judge her solely by what other people said about her.

Gessen had not necessarily endeared herself to any number of RFE/RL journalists when she accepted her post in September. In the first place, she had, much to the astonishment of many observers, consented [2] to a private meeting with the despot Vladimir Putin prior to her arrival—a shocking misstep for a seasoned journalist who had written a critical biography of Russia’s leader. (As one incisive source tells me: “Putin is a classic mid-level KGB colonel from the seventies. He will call you for a meeting and then discuss nothing of substance … Masha got played.”) In the second, Gessen reported for her current job around the time more than 40 percent of the journalistic staff she was to lead had been summarily fired [3], or had resigned in protest of those dismissals. So common sense was, perhaps, not her forte.

Still I was looking forward to the event, and really surprised on arriving to find both Ambassador Ashe and Kevin Klose, the newly appointed president of RFE/RL, not at the upstairs party itself, but standing at loose ends in the lobby of the Newseum, both pale with insult. When I marveled at their decision to man the door—Ashe is 68, after all—I heard something that didn’t sound likely.

“There may be a problem getting into the dinner,” Ashe told me with considerable understatement. And so we three just stood there, perplexed.

Meanwhile 20 minutes passed. Senators and congressmen drifted by, greeting Ashe (the host of the Gessen event was, it turns out, John Malone, the billionaire who heads Liberty Media, and billionaires for some reason attract a lot of politicians). Powell Moore, the former assistant defense secretary, asked what the trouble was, and Ashe explained that even though he had a copy of his invitation with him, he had been told as he walked in that he wasn’t on the list of invitees. Moore gave him one of those oh-that-can’t-be looks, and said he was certain the wrinkle would be smoothed out in no time.

How wrong he was …

Visibly mortified, one of the event’s publicity people finally supplied Ashe with the reason for his exile: “I’m sorry, but the guest of honor has requested that you not be admitted to the dinner.” So Masha Gessen, an RFE/RL employee, caps off her billionaire-hosted evening by banning from the event the vice chairman of the very board that controls the fate of RFE/RL? It seemed unlikely, I thought.

But then Heather Lipp, an emissary from the company hosting the event, arrived, repeating the same information: Gessen didn’t want Ashe at her dinner. And oh, by the way, Lipp added, Ashe had never replied to the invitation, so that’s why he wasn’t on the guest list.

Really? But if Ashe never replied to the invitation, how on earth did Gessen know he had accepted?

“Is she psychic?” I wondered aloud.

Lipp said nothing in reply, but her expression darkened.

(A little aside here: When I got home, I reviewed my old e-mails and saw a copy of Ashe’s acceptance, which he had sent me, dated March 19th.)

“Masha must think she’s still in Russia,” offered Ashe.

It was at this point that the normally quiet and contained Klose, who is Gessen’s boss, spoke up about the incident. “If you are not allowed into the dinner,” he told Ashe, “I won’t be there either.” This was, in essence, the message Lipp was asked to convey upstairs to the guest of honor.

So after that exchange, the doors flew open. The dam broke. Gessen relented. The Fox television commentator John Stossel, the emcee of the evening, spent most of the time flogging his own opinions and his new book. When it was Gessen’s turn to talk, her voice was so low, her accent so thick, and her mike so ineffectual that I honestly can’t tell you a thing she said.

Also, I kept thinking of something else.

As news director of RFE/RL, Gessen gets a base salary of $150,000—but with living expenses and other extras, it actually comes to $200,000. This makes her the organization’s highest paid individual. So many dollars, I kept on thinking that night. So little sense.

Correction. Heather Lipp is an employee of Liberty Media Company, the sponsors of the Media for Liberty award and hosts of the event last Thursday. She is not associated with Radio Liberty or RFE/RL, as this post originally stated.