Another Reason Not to Trust the Washington Post

In the recent "don't bring a gun to a snowball fight" incident, the WaPo disregarded both the eyewitness reports of one of its own employees and video that was available on YouTube in favor of going with a "oh, our cops would never do that" statement by the police brass.

First off, anyone who does not understand that the reflexive reaction of any police agency is going to be to deny that anything bad was ever done by any officer probably also believes in unicorns and pots of gold at the ends of rainbows.

Second, the reaction of the WaPo illuminates their mindset of defaulting to the official account (at least from authoritarian organizations, like the police and the Bush Administration) despite evidence that the officials are either simply wrong or are actively lying.

One would think that "question authority" would be instinctive in reporters. But not at the Post. They seem to have learned nothing from their stenographic coverage of the Bush Administration.