What is her major conclusion in her analysis of the coverage that "Post" reporters, columnists, and editorial writers have been giving Sen. George Allen in recent weeks? Speaking of the "Post" coverage of the "macaca" racial slur, Howell says, "Did The Post overplay the incident? Not initially, but the coverage went on for too long after he apologized." Well, I think she's wrong about that, and wrong about a whole bunch of other things in her column. I think we should politely but firmly point out the flawed thinking in the column. More below.

Here's how it begins:

A former teammate of Sen. George Allen during his years as a University of Virginia football player said Allen frequently used a racial epithet to refer to black people.

Allen vehemently denied the allegation in an Associated Press interview Monday.

Well, a second reporter has screwed up the courage to ask George Allen a direct question about the 1996 photo of then-Governor Allen standing with, endorsing, and being endorsed by three members of a racist, white supremacist group, the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). (For more on the photo, published in an Aug. 29 article by the "Nation" magazine, see here).

And for the second time, Allen or his campaign staff have dodged key questions about the photo. More below.

Most of you have probably already seen the August 29 "Nation" article and photo of George Allen meeting with three leaders of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a racist, white supremacist group (see here). As you can see from the photo, its caption clearly identifies the three CCC leaders and their positions within the organization when the photo was taken. So what does the "Washington Post" say today (see here) about those three CCC leaders, in an article about blogs in the Webb-Allen race this year? The two "Post" reporters who co-wrote the story say that those three CCC leaders in the photo "allegedly belonged to a white supremacist group." More below about the background of the "Post" article of today, the "alleged" journalism of the "Washington Post" vs. real journalism, and what we can do about it.

Over the last two years that I've been reading DKos, I've seen lots of people get angry about some particular news story, and post here on DKos the LTE that they've fired off to the offending newspaper or magazine. While some of those LTEs looked great, others made me feel discouraged by the small chance that they would get printed. More below the fold.

Here's how he begins:

President Bush on Saturday night had the audience at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in stitches. With doppelganger comedian Steve Bridges alongside -- playing his inner self -- Bush poked gentle fun of his own mangling of the English language, his belligerence and his feelings about the media.

Then Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert ripped those stitches out.

Froomkin describes what Colbert said, the lack of coverage by the mainstream media, and what left and right bloggers have said. It's definitely worth reading the whole piece, which is at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...