Washington Post Reports the News?

Everybody tells me that the Washington Post is a great newspaper. It has some of the best reporters. It reports all the important news. But what do they call news? And how do they report it? Is rumor news? Is it proper to report a known falsehood as news?

In an article titled “Foes Use Obama’s Muslim Ties to Fuel Rumors about Him” Peny Bacon “reported”:

Despite his denials, rumors and e-mails circulating on the Internet continue to allege that Obama (D-Ill.) is a Muslim, a “Muslim plant” in a conspiracy against America, and that, if elected president, he would take the oath of office using a Koran, rather than a Bible, as did Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the only Muslim in Congress, when he was sworn in earlier this year.

Since when are “rumors and emails circulating on the Internet” news? I was under the impression that reporters report facts. Unbelievably, Lois Romano of the Washington Post defended her newspaper as follows:

We are getting many questions of our story on Obama today. I’ll try to address this as best I can. These are always very difficult decisions — how to address something that people are talking about, that has clearly become a factor in the race, without taking a position. Part of our job is to acknowledge that there is a discussion going on and to fact check and lay out the facts. The Internet has complicated this responsibility because there is so much garbage and falsehoods out there.

This discussion has reached a high pitch on the Internet and our editors decided it was in the readers interest to address it. I have heard people say that they won’t support Sen. Obama because they read he doesn’t put is hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. He has denied this — so airing some of this and giving him a chance to deny its accuracy could be viewed as setting the record straight.

There is a discussion going on? What discussion? Where is it? Who said it? The “story” itself referred to rumors. Rumors are not discussions.

They’re “setting the record straight”? What record? Obama already answered these accusations and independent journalists have confirmed that these are all false. Reporters are not supposed to give both sides of a “story” when they know, they are positive, that one side is definitely false. If a reporter does not know whether a rumor is true or false, she is supposed to investigate and find out the truth.

This is worse than yellow journalism. Here you have a newspaper that parades as one that reports the news but disseminates falsehoods. I don’t believe I will ever believe what the Washington Post claims to be its report of the news.