Throwing a Flag on the Taylor Coverage

"There were plenty of places in The Post where he was praised as a good father, good son, good ballplayer," Wilbon said of Taylor. Indeed, Post coverage was full of Redskins players, coaches and management praising Taylor. There was a raft of excellent pieces Wednesday: Wilbon and Thomas Boswell at their best. Mike Wise's look at Taylor's life was illuminating. Particularly touching was Jason LaCanfora's piece on the relationship between Taylor and Gregg Williams, assistant head coach for defense. Gene Robinson wrapped it up beautifully in his Friday op-ed column.

Several readers, including some in the newsroom, thought the coverage was overdone. Sheila Johnston of Arlington wrote: "The Post's unlimited coverage of the death of Sean Taylor is unseemly and over the top. He was a young man murdered in his prime, yes; but how often does that happen every day in Iraq -- whether to an American or an Iraqi? Or in D.C.? Or all over the U.S.? Where are your priorities?"

Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, assistant managing editor for sports, and Jim Brady, washingtonpost.com executive editor, don't agree. "Based on the [Web site] traffic they get, we can't overplay the Redskins," Brady said. "If you look at the audience this story attracted, we could have done even more."

Another reason that readers were attracted to the coverage was, as Garcia-Ruiz said, "Nobody really knew Taylor. He didn't give interviews to the press. He was an enigma."

Post coverage of his death made him better known to readers than he ever was in life.

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Next week: The Obama story that's burning up the Internet.

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