Ex Post Facto

Defending an earmuff

When the Washington Post's "Ear" column passed along a rumor two weeks ago that the Reagans' guest quarters in Washington had been bugged just before last January's Inauguration, an outraged Jimmy Carter demanded a retraction and threatened a libel suit. Last week the Post responded in print, with an editorial that may have set a new standard for journalistic sophistry. "There are a lot of 'we's' at the Washington Post," it began, "but the one you are about to hear from comes about as close as you can get to being the basic, collective 'we'--the voice of the Washington Post, speaking for the Washington Post." The original "Ear" item, the editorial noted, had reported only that a rumor was circulating; that did not mean the newspaper thought it was true. In fact, continued the Post, "we find that rumor utterly impossible to believe." To suggest that what appears elsewhere in the paper is somehow not the real Washington Post is confusing enough. To add that it is all right to pass along damaging gossip, regardless of its accuracy, is still more baffling.

Insiders at the paper said the apologia was written "under duress" by Editorial Page Editor Meg Greenfield, meaning that she got a lot of heat from Executive Editor Ben Bradlee and Publisher Donald Graham. Post reporters, still smarting from the Janet Cooke Pulitzer Prize hoax earlier this year, were distressed to see their paper leaping into another ethical mud puddle. So were other journalists.

Asked Philadelphia Bulletin Editor Craig Ammerman: "Why didn't they simply run a correction?" Added Boston Globe Editorial Page Editor Martin Nolan, "There are two rules in writing editorials: 1) be clear; 2) have a point. This editorial satisfies neither rule." The unkindest cut came from former White House Spokesman Jody Powell, who suggested that the Post should change its editorial page motto from ''An Independent Newspaper" to "Caveat emptor "(Let the buyer beware).

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