<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1" ?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>washingtonpost.com - Ombudsman</title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/opinion/columns/ombudsman?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><description>Ombudsman</description><language>en-us</language><ttl>15</ttl><image><title>washingtonpost.com</title><width>140</width><height>20</height><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com</link><url>http://media.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/hp/image/wp_web.gif</url></image><item><title><![CDATA[FAIR or Unfair Game?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12491-2005Apr23.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12491-2005Apr23.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  I was  inundated with e-mails and phone messages last week from  700 or so faithful followers of FAIR, short for Fairness &#38; Accuracy in Reporting. One of several self-described media watchdog operations on both sides of the political divide, FAIR labels itself "progressive" and comes at things from a liberal position. Its targets are usually on the right.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Getting Blogged Down in the News]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59558-2005Apr16.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59558-2005Apr16.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  Being away for 10  days usually means coming back to some old business. It's unusual for old business to remain new business over such a stretch, but that's what has happened with The Post's coverage of the mysterious Senate memo dealing with political strategy in the case of the now-deceased Terri Schiavo.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Too Lofty a Spot for This Story?]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3901-2005Mar26.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3901-2005Mar26.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   It was almost certainly the least surprising "news" of the week, but it was spread across the top of The Post's front page on  Wednesday. The first-edition main headline said, "Cheney Applauds Bush Appointments." As the evening progressed, the paper apparently grew slightly more conservative, journalistically speaking, and changed the headline to "Cheney Defends Bush Appointments."]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[For a Few Stories, a Grade of Incomplete]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50364-2005Mar19.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50364-2005Mar19.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   One theme that emerged from the ombudsman's e-mail  last week was  things that readers felt were missing from stories.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Pretty Good Story, Except for the Lead]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30324-2005Mar12.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30324-2005Mar12.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  On March 3, Senate Minority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) took a pretty strong verbal shot at Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan during an interview with CNN. Reid blasted Greenspan as "one of the biggest political hacks we have here in Washington."]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Fixing 'the Essential Newspaper']]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10515-2005Mar5.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10515-2005Mar5.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Last Sunday's column about declining circulation and other challenges that newspapers face  elicited more than  75 e-mails, letters and phone calls.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Essential Newspaper]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56617-2005Feb26.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56617-2005Feb26.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Anyone interested in newspapers is probably aware that this is a tough time for a medium that has been a central feature of American history and democracy since the founding of our republic.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[From the Archives, but Still News]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38531-2005Feb19.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38531-2005Feb19.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   The New York Times has many thousands of readers in the Washington area, and when that paper has a story that some readers here view as important and that the hometown Washington Post doesn't have, or doesn't appear to treat as important news, I hear from people about it. There are also many times, I'm sure, when Post editors don't agree with the other paper's news judgment, and many times when The Post has a story that readers of the Times wished was in their newspaper.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[What's Behind Above-the-Fold Play]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19940-2005Feb12.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19940-2005Feb12.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   One of the complexities of this job is to figure out which reader complaints or observations should be dealt with in the Sunday column. Sometimes it's very clear, when many readers -- by that I mean dozens or more -- write independently and with originality about some subject. I don't include orchestrated e-mail campaigns in that category. But there are other times when only one or two readers write about something that strikes me as interesting about journalism, and that, too, can make a column. This is one of those columns.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[In the Eye of the Beholder]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1675-2005Feb5.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1675-2005Feb5.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  As the old saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. But sometimes it is worth 600 words. That was the case when the Style section published, at the top of its front page Jan. 28, an Associated Press photo of a row of dignitaries, including Vice President  Cheney, at ceremonies at the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland marking the 60th anniversary of the liberation of that camp during the final months of World War II. Along with the photo went a  critique of Cheney's outfit by The Post's fashion columnist, Robin Givhan.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Gaps in Disclosure, and in Satire]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47781-2005Jan29.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47781-2005Jan29.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  For those of you who worry about media credibility, it was another one of those weeks. Things were disclosed about the media that made some people cringe, yet it was the press that disclosed what was going on in its own back yard.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A Powerful Tale Unravels]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29575-2005Jan22.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29575-2005Jan22.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   On July 21, 2003, The Post published a wrenching front-page story about a 41-year-old Iraqi woman, Jumana Michael Hanna, who said that during the mid-1990s she had endured torture and rape inside the prison cells of Saddam Hussein's "police academy." The headline over the 2,800-word story by correspondent Peter Finn read, "A Lone Woman Testifies to Iraq's Order of Terror."]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Black Eyes and a Lot of Good Work]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12610-2005Jan15.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12610-2005Jan15.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   This has not been a great week or so for the news business. Last Monday CBS News got clobbered, properly so, by an independent panel of investigators for "considerable and fundamental deficiencies" in its reporting of a story last September about President Bush's National Guard service. A couple of days earlier we learned that radio and television commentator Armstrong Williams accepted $241,000 from the Education Department to promote President Bush's No Child Left Behind law on the air.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Aftershocks From Asia]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59782-2005Jan8.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59782-2005Jan8.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  The catastrophic wall of water that swept away so many lives late last month in South Asia provided another of those unexpected tests for news organizations. Once again, The Post's experienced staff of foreign correspondents rose to the occasion. Reporters in Indonesia and India were on the scene quickly. Others from bureaus in China and Europe joined in, as well as reporters from the Washington staff. Within days, The Post had 10 reporters (but no photographers, something that was left to the wire services) spread throughout the devastated areas.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[A High Percentage of Attention]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26074-2004Dec25.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26074-2004Dec25.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   The three stories that readers most focused on last week all dealt with numbers and statistics.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Late-Breaking News]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10898-2004Dec18.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10898-2004Dec18.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Last Monday, a headline on Page A17 of The Post said, "U.S. Troops, Insurgents Battle Across Iraq." Just below that headline, in smaller type, was a line that read: "Eight Marines Killed, Seven Soldiers Injured in Fighting." Not surprisingly, some readers called or e-mailed to ask why that story wasn't on the front page. "Eight dead Marines on A17," one reader wrote. "So if there are four dead will that be on A34? Will it take 32 dead to at least make the front page?" Some other readers compared it with a feature story on  Page One  that morning about how the sandwich trade was booming in local, chain-operated eating places.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Stories That Had Readers Writing]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58251-2004Dec11.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58251-2004Dec11.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[  There was, as usual, lots of solid reporting in The Post last week. But readers, as usual, also offered interesting and important challenges.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[What Readers Saw, and Didn't See]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36067-2004Dec4.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36067-2004Dec4.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   What follows are observations by readers about a couple of items that appeared in the paper last week and an observation of mine about a story that didn't appear.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Drawing Complaints, Online and Off]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A943-2004Nov20.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A943-2004Nov20.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[   Much of the mail to me this past week was about something that was not in the newspaper, although a lot of the people who wrote angry e-mails or left angry phone messages apparently thought it was.]]></description><author> Michael Getler</author></item><item><title><![CDATA[Nightmare on 43rd Street]]></title><link>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43990-2004Nov11.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</link><guid isPermaLink="true">http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A43990-2004Nov11.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns/ombudsman</guid><pubDate>Sun, 24 Apr 2005 7:48:16 GMT</pubDate><description><![CDATA[Seth Mnookin, a former media reporter for Newsweek, has done something that's hard to do: He has written a book about journalism that is hard to put down.]]></description><author>Reviewed  Michael Getler</author></item></channel></rss>
