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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The Washington Post's ombudsman rebuked journalist Bob Woodward on Sunday for withholding what he knew about the CIA leak probe from his editor and for making public statements that were dismissive of the investigation without disclosing his own involvement. One of the best-known investigative reporters in the United States, Woodward revealed last week that he testified under oath to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that a senior Bush administration official told him in mid-June 2003 about CIA operative Valerie Plame's position at the agency. Fitzgerald announced a few days later in court papers that his two-year criminal investigation...

As most of you have read or seen by now, a journalist and NBC/MSNBC media consultant named William “Bill” Arkin has created quite a stir by viciously insulting American soldiers in Iraq. He wrote at his Washington Post blog, “Early Warning: William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security” column (1/30/07), that “… this NBC (Nightly News) report is just an ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary - oops sorry, volunteer force that thinks it is doing the dirty work” re Iraq. The “report,” according to Arkin, featured “a number of soldiers (who) expressed frustration with...

The tone of America's discourse seems to have taken a wrong turn, and many people are worried that we are no longer treating each other with the respect and courtesy that we expect in our society. Who knows when it all started. It didn't start when Republican Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina shouted out "You Lie" during President Obama's speech to Congress Sept. 9, nor in June when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said that Rush Limbaugh is the "guy who says the assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. should get the Medal of Honor." (He didn't say that, according...

Former Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell, one of the first women to lead a major U.S. newspaper, died in an accident involving an automobile in New Zealand on Saturday, according to her family. She was 68. Howell was traveling in New Zealand on vacation with her husband, C. Peter Magrath, at the time of the accident. Her stepson Nick Coleman said Howell suffered fatal injuries when struck by a vehicle. She lived in Glen Echo.

An Open Letter to the Washington Post In her op-ed, "Remedying the Bias Perception" (November 16, 2008), Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell admitted the Washington Post's reporters (not to mention most other mainstream journalists) tilted their coverage of the presidential election in favor of Barack Obama. I am shocked, shocked (!) that the news media effectively disenfranchised American voters. Do they not call themselves "watchdogs of government"? The National Review reported not long ago that journalists investigated Joe the Plumber for having the temerity to ask Obama a difficult question about his tax policies. American voters learned about Joe the...

A week after Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell agreed with readers who saw “a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama” in the paper's campaign coverage, Howell this Sunday admitted she voted for Obama and “bet” that so did “most” in the Post's newsroom: I'll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo.

Thousands of conservatives and even some moderates have complained during my more than three-year term that The Post is too liberal; many have stopped subscribing, including more than 900 in the past four weeks. It pains me to see lost subscribers and revenue, especially when newspapers are shrinking. Conservative complaints can be wrong: The mainstream media were not to blame for John McCain's loss; Barack Obama's more effective campaign and the financial crisis were.

Guilty! One of the nation's premier newspapers fesses up about allegations of pro-Obama bias. The Washington Post's ombudsperson, Deborah Howell, tracked its presidential campaign stories, front-page coverage and use of photos covering the period from Obama's nomination on June 4 to Election Day. The result? Howell writes: "The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces about McCain, 58, than there were about Obama, 32, and Obama got the editorial board's endorsement. … "Stories and photos about Obama in the news pages outnumbered those devoted...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a weekend article, the ombudsman for the Washington Post admitted that the liberal newspaper had a bias for pro-abortion candidate Barack Obama during the elections. The paper followed the article with a report on how the President-elect would overturn "ideologically offensive" pro-life policies. On Sunday, Deborah Howell admitted that readers of her paper "have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama." "My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts," she admitted. Howell's internal examination...

The mainstream press have been accused of being biased in favor of President-elect Barack Obama for months - a phenomenon now acknowledged by one of the nation's media heavyweights. On Sunday, The Washington Post's ombudsman, Deborah Howell, offered evidence of an "Obama tilt" in her own newspaper. "Readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts," Ms. Howell wrote in her column. "Now Howell gives the mea culpa in her first...

THE Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on election day, show that they are right on both counts. The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces (58) about McCain than there were about Obama (32), and Obama got the editorial board's endorsement. The Post has several conservative columnists, but not all were gung-ho about McCain....

Democrat Barack Obama has had about a 3 to 1 advantage over Republican John McCain in Post Page 1 stories since Obama became his party's presumptive nominee June 4. In overall political stories from June 4 to Friday, Obama dominated by 142 to 96. Obama has been featured in 35 stories on Page 1; McCain has been featured in 13... When Obama traveled to the Middle East and Europe, the coverage dwarfed that of McCain -- six Page 1 stories from July 19 to July 27, plus an earlier front-page story announcing the trip. McCain managed one Page 1 story...

Barack Obama may be only eight points ahead of John McCain in the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll, but he's creaming McCain in the number of pictures and stories published in The Post in the past two months. ....

In her Sunday column this week, Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell responds to charges of improper money-making from special-interest groups against two of the newspaper's stars, David Broder and Bob Woodward. The allegations were carried in the current issue of Harper's by Ken Silverstein, the magazine's Washington editor. Both Broder and Woodward recently took buyouts from the paper but remain as contract workers. The Post Stylebook's ethics and standards section says only: "We freelance for no one and accept no speaking engagements without permission from department heads." Howell observes: "Broder and Woodward did not check with editors on the appearances...

Recent events in the newspaper business make it clear that newsrooms cannot escape market forces. Stockholders forced the sale of Knight Ridder Inc., the nation's second-largest newspaper chain, with 32 papers. McClatchy Co. announced Monday it would buy Knight Ridder, but said it would sell 12 of the 32 newspapers -- the ones not making enough money and not in growth markets. And Post editors announced March 10 that the newsroom will cut 80 of 870 newsroom positions. The New York Times, located in the world's financial center, announced on Tuesday that it will stop publishing daily stock listings. Advertising...

Washington journalism has about it a peculiar insularity. Who gets credit for groundbreaking reporting is not important to most readers, but Washington editors often try to knock down each other's stories and want to be credited when they think they've broken a story first. I know; I've done it. So a memo from Knight-Ridder's Washington bureau that criticized The Post, leaked to a popular media news Web site Friday, was not viewed with equanimity in The Post's newsroom. snip The most serious issue was Hoyt's questioning of figures cited in a front-page story in The Post on Tuesday -- that...

Dana Milbank can be controversial with readers. The Post reporter has his fans -- and I can be one of them -- but I think his appearance on MSNBC last week was a mistake in judgment. Milbank wore hunting gear -- an orange stocking cap and striped vest and gloves -- on Keith Olbermann's show Monday night and made several meant-to-be-humorous remarks about Vice President Cheney's hunting accident. Here's an example from the transcript: Olbermann: And will there be more hunting trips? I mean, would you actually go hunting with the vice president at this point, even dressed the way...

Liberal commentator Deborah Howell found out what happens when you don't follow liberal orthodoxy as a columnist: you get eaten alive.

'Wash Post' Ombud Vows to Stay on Job Despite Uproar Deborah Howell By E&P Staff Published: January 22, 2006 12:45 AM ET NEW YORK Responding to the furor that started exactly one week ago, Deborah Howell, ombudsman at The Washington Post since just last autumn, writes today, "Nothing in my 50-year career prepared me for the thousands of flaming e-mails I got last week over my last column, e-mails so abusive and many so obscene that part of The Post's Web site was shut down." As Howell notes, that column claimed that indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave campaign money to...

Wonders of wonders, the Washington Post finally but somewhat unobtrusively turned back on their blog. No doubt after getting "tons of emails" about it. But from what Jim Brady said and the recent turning on the blog back on doesn't make any sense.