lies, and is not on the front page, It's "nice" the Post suffered a correction, but why was THAT not on the front page, too, where it might have been notice, and the smear partially undone? The hit job is completed, it will live on.

how this one plays out.  Although my sense is that the greatest damage will be to the credibility of the reporter in question and to the paper itself.  Some pretty harsh criticisms from journalistic peers at USC's and Columbia's journalism blogs about this story -- not to mention the overwhelmingly critical response in the on-line comment section of the article.  In the future the writer's stories are likely to get quite a bit of scrutiny.  It will be quite a while before many readers look at his by-line without wondering if he is pushing a not-so-subtle agenda (the same is perhaps true of the news editor).

Part of the story here is just the vast disconnect between the Washington Post and a substantial part of its one-time readership.  These days I tend to put a lot more faith in family run newspapers -- whether we are talking about the New York Times, the Roanoke Times, or the Virginia Pilot.  Even the McClatchy chain, which is publicly held, seems to have maintained its standards in the face of quarterly shareholder pressures.  

On the other hand, the expansion of the Washington Post Groups holdings into other media and its decision to go public have compromised the overall quality of its flagship publication and its brand.  Ben Bradlee's retirement and Katherine Graham's transfer of ownership were among the worst things to ever happen to the paper -- and its readership.

The Washington Post is nothing but a rag. It's a shame to see how far it has descended from the days of its courageous, accurate, groundbreaking Watergate reporting.  If the Post stumbled over a story like that today (and it has probably stumbled over many stories like that in recent years), it would certainly fire any writer who dared to attempt to publish it.

Newspapers wonder why their readership is declining.  They need look no farther than the mirror.  Fortunately, the internet provides a formidable alternative, which will succeed in keeping them honest, their best efforts to the contrary notwithstanding.

WAPO (aka Pentapost) is nothing more than a megaphone for White House talking points.  About four years ago or so (forgotten exactly), it stopped delivering to my area.  Only trouble is we might as well not have any paper with the Roanoke Times abandoning significant world news coverage for the most part and cluttering up the front pages with feel-good features and celebrity gossip.

The editorial pages editor and staff are generally good, but the news and headline writers are another story.  And the letters policy unleashes the most unbelievably bigoted pile of homophobic, racist, anti-progressive sludge you can imagine.

It's an embarrassment when visitors read the cesspool of LTEs from the R-cons.