'Wash Post' Ombud Addresses Obama 'Muslim Rumors' Story

By: E&P Staff After more than a week of criticism of the paper -- some from within its own ranks -- Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell addressed the front page story that covered unfounded rumors that Sen. Barack Obama was some kind of "Muslim plant" in America.

Here is how she opens it. The whole piece, which will appear in Sunday's Post, is now online at www.washingtonpost.com.
*

Stories about rumors are tricky and easily misconstrued. A Nov. 29 story and headline that explored Barack Obama's "connections to the Muslim world" and rumors that he is Muslim were met with a swift Internet reaction that left some staffers stunned at its ferocity. Even Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles was "so upset" that he took the unusual step of taking potshots at the story in an editorial page cartoon.

My problems with the story by National Desk political reporter Perry Bacon Jr. and the headline ("Foes Use Obama's Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors About Him") were that Obama's connections to Islam are slender at best; that the rumors were old; and that convincing evidence of their falsity wasn't included in the story.

But there was no deliberate "smear job," as some readers charged. The story said clearly in the second paragraph that Obama is a member of a United Church of Christ congregation in Chicago.