[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17528]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              WASHINGTON POST ADMITS ERRORS IN KOCH STORY

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                            HON. LAMAR SMITH

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, November 15, 2011

  Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Washington Post recently 
published a story about alleged questionable business practices by Koch 
subsidiaries dating back to the 1990s. The Post received criticism for 
the unbalanced and incomplete story on Koch Industries.
  Patrick B. Pexton, Washington Post Ombudsman, stated ``I think The 
Post erred in republishing this story, or at least in the way it did. 
And when the Kochs complained to The Post after publication, The Post's 
response wasn't handled well.''
  In addition, the Ombudsman goes on to state, ``. . . I think the 
story lacked context, was tendentious and was unfair in not reporting 
some of the exculpatory and contextual information . . . I think 
newspapers should always be provocative. But they should also be fair 
and provide context . . . The Post could have included a sidebar 
summarizing and linking to the rebuttals. It could have called Koch 
directly--it didn't--and put its comments in the sidebar.''
  I hope that the Washington Post will be more thorough and accurate in 
its reporting in the future.

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