Anger Over a Prayer Day Portrayal

Milbank's columns have attitude and are meant to be provocative. The issue isn't just whether Milbank is fair; the issue is whether it was fair for The Post to let his column stand as the only coverage of the event. In this instance, it was not.

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Several readers questioned a clarification on a May 3 article on negotiations between President Bush and congressional Democrats over the war funding bill. The story, by Jonathan Weisman and Shailagh Murray, described Democrats as "offering the first major concession: an agreement to drop their demand for a timeline to bring troops home from Iraq."

The clarification published May 4 said that while Democrats are no longer pushing a firm date for troop withdrawals, party leaders did not specifically make that concession during a meeting with Bush at the White House. Mark Stein of Wilmington, Del., and other readers found the clarification confusing. "This means that the major point and the headline of this front page article were both incorrect. I believe The Post's readers deserve an explanation of how Mr. Weisman, Ms. Murray and their editors got a major story like this so wrong," Stein wrote.

The story was not and is not wrong, the reporters say. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi requested the clarification, Weisman said, because she believed the lead paragraph suggested that Democrats offered the concession face to face to President Bush, which did not happen. Weisman saw no harm in a clarification, but its wording led some people to think that the story was wrong.

Deborah Howell can be reached at 202-334-7582 or atombudsman@washpost.com.