Deborah Howell Hightails for the Border...

Last fall, when Deborah Howell was making her strafing runs at Dan Froomkin, the idea that the Washington Post's ombudsman's brief did not extend to washingtonpost.com never entered her head. Today, however...

AMERICAblog: Because a great nation deserves the truth: Isn't this interesting. The Washington Post ombudsman is now saying she'll have nothing to do with the Post's Republican blogger scandal because it's not her jurisdiction.... Which is quite funny... the same ombudsman recently wrote an article critical of Post writer Dan Froomkin who writes exclusively on the .com, and considering that the Post's Republican blogger was apparently hired to address the "liberal bias" concerns that the ombusdman raised in that very column about .com writer Froomkin.

So in what possible world is this issue not in the jurisdiction of the Post's ombudsman when she started the entire thing in the first place in her own column?...

Here's the email the Post ombsudman is now sending out to everyone who inquires about the blogger scandal:

From: Deborah C Howell HowellDC@washpost.com
Date: March 23, 2006 9:44:05 PM EST
To: xxxxx
Subject: Re: Domenech

The Washington Post has not hired him. The website has. The two are under totally different management. He will not be working for the newspaper. If you want to complain to the right person, try executive.editor@wpni.com.

Deborah

Wow, they're two totally different companies, yet Deborah Howell had no problem writing a column attacking supposed "liberal" Dan Froomkin who works for the "other company" that Howell claims she now has no jurisdiction over. Amazing how tunes change...

A real ombudsman would write something like:

Post corporate headquarters is running the print paper and the website as separate companies located in separate states, largely to try to economize on labor costs. However, the reputations of the Washington Post newspaper and washingtonpost.com are inextricably intertwined. It is very unfortunate and regrettable that washingtonpost.com has hired a man whose idea of civil discourse is to call the late Coretta Scott King a "Communist" on the day of her funeral, and to condemn Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as worse than the KKK. We hope that washingtonpost.com will correct this error as soon as possible.

Standards, you know.