The marketing executive at the center of a controversial series of Washington Post-sponsored dinner "salons" has resigned from the newspaper some 10 weeks after the events were canceled, The Post said Friday.
Charles Pelton, who had helped organize and promote the monthly dinners as The Post's newly hired general manager of events and conferences, made no mention of the controversy in his resignation letter to Post President Stephen P. Hills. "Given the current circumstances with regard to the resources needed to launch [an events business]," Pelton wrote, "my family and I have decided not to relocate to Washington, D.C.," from California.
Pelton was not immediately available for further comment.
The dinners Pelton was organizing were advertised to involve Post journalists, Obama administration and congressional officials, and industry executives in a series of sponsored, off-the-record conversations about public policy issues. The dinners were to be held at the home of Post publisher Katharine Weymouth.
