Many voices within Washington Post's newsroom criticized its story on Obama's rumored Muslim ties. Wash. Post Obama story under fire

The Washington Post is accustomed to criticism of its coverage from the right and left blogospheres, but a Nov. 29 front page story about Barack Obama’s rumored Muslim ties came with a twist: Many voices within its own newsroom joined in the firestorm.

Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles lampooned it on the editorial page last Friday, and media critic Howard Kurtz wrote Monday that he didn’t “believe the piece was well executed.” This Sunday, Deborah Howell will weigh in with her ombudsman column.


Assistant Managing Editor Bill Hamilton, who oversees political coverage and edited the article, said that he was “a little puzzled” that readers didn’t see that the paper’s intention was to call into question rumors that Obama is secretly a Muslim (rather than a Christian), and was educated in an Indonesian madrassa.

“I’m sorry it was misunderstood,” Hamilton said. “It obviously makes me think about how I edited it.”

Both Post Managing Editor Phil Bennett and Perry Bacon Jr., the reporter who wrote the piece (and is now on the campaign trail in Iowa), deferred questions to Hamilton.

Since Thursday, there have been angry e-mails, Hamilton said, and allegations that the Post is swift-boating the Illinois senator by discussing rumors at length, without mentioning whether they’ve been thoroughly discredited by other media.

In a web piece titled “Is Perry Bacon Serious?”, Columbia Journalism Review’s Paul McLeary wrote that the Post’s A1 story “may be the single worst campaign ‘08 piece to appear in any American newspaper so far this election cycle.”

McLeary contended that the Post played up rumors about Muslim ties, including one from Insight magazine about how the young Obama was educated at an Indonesian madrassa, without mentioning that a CNN reporter jetted off to Jakarta nearly 11 months ago and debunked it.

Responding to McLeary’s piece, Hamilton said that for a “journalism review to adapt the language of the most extreme blogs totally discredits it.” He also took offense at CJR’s singling out Bacon in the headline.

Indeed, Hamilton said that the story originated in the past few weeks, following discussions with political reporters who noted how a small segment of the public—despite evidence to the contrary—believed that Obama was Muslim, or at least had a Muslim education. Executive editor Len Downie liked the finished story enough for it get front page treatment, according to Hamilton.

The paper’s intention, Hamilton said, was “to write a story about the kind of rumors that are out there,” and added that “saying something is a rumor is not saying it’s true.”

“We didn’t say it was a false rumor,” Hamilton added. “To me, a rumor is not true.”

In the Post article, the madrassa story is described as “an early rumor,” rather than a “false report,” which is how CNN summed it up in Jan. 2007.

“I don’t mean to be immune to criticism,” Hamilton said. “Obviously we did something that we should have been careful about.”

However, he added, “Not every imperfect story generates this type of controversy.”

Accepting internal criticism, Hamilton said that the Post “is a big family, and families have lots of disagreements.”

“We’re not a hierarchical organization that promotes message discipline,” he added.