Howell: Under Attack

From dot.comments:

Deborah Howell, The Washington Post’s ombudsman for the past three years, suggested in her weekly column Sunday several ways for the Post (and washingtonpost.com) to enhance its “accessibility, credibility and appeal to readers in this time of economic stress.”

She made many suggestions and our Readers Who Comment came down — often impolitely — squarely on both sides. That is what makes her job so difficult. She can’t please anybody — and neither could her predecessors. I am amazed every day when reviewing reader comments at how two people looking at the same paragraph, especially in political or hot-button-issue stories, see totally opposite biases in the reporting and writing.

There’s a reason Post ombudsmen work on a contract basis for a specific a period of time: you can take this much abuse for only so long. Howell is at the end of her tenure and a new ombudsman is soon to arrive.

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