Speaking of the Post and its all-important website, ombudsman Deborah Howell White House Briefing: "Political reporters at The Post don't like WPNI columnist Dan Froomkin's "White House Briefing," which is highly opinionated and liberal. They're afraid that some readers think that Froomkin is a Post White House reporter."

John "Spoilsport" Harris, the paper's national political editor, tells Howell, "The title invites confusion. It dilutes our only asset -- our credibility" as objective news reporters. Froomkin writes the kind of column "that we would never allow a White House reporter to write. I wish it could be done with a different title and display."

She then weighs in, "Harris is right; some readers do think Froomkin is a White House reporter. But Froomkin works only for the Web site and is very popular -- and [WP.com executive editor Jim Brady] is not going to fool with that, though he is considering changing the column title and supplementing it with a conservative blogger."

Froomkin responds, saying, he's "happy to consider other ways to telegraph to people that I'm not a Post White House reporter. I do think that what I'm doing, namely scrutinizing the White House's every move -- with an attitude -- is in the best traditions of American and Washington Post journalism."

It seems all of the complaints could be easily fixed by one of those annoying disclaimers that are pervading society for the benefit of stupid people/ideologues: "This independent column is written by Dan Froomkin, who is, for the really dense out there, NOT a political reporter at the paper. Thus opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of the Washington Post, John Harris, Dana Milbank, Michael Fletcher, or even Jim VandeHei, as crazy as this may seem."

Additionally it seems that if this issue is the biggest problem Howell can find with the website and its people, then there's not much to complain about...