Contrary to what this photo suggests, the Washington Examiner‘s Paul Bedard is not in prison, so don’t try to “free” him.

But when we passed this Examiner news rack at the corner of 17th and Corcoran, we wondered if a promise of heavy publicity was part of the contract when Bedard signed with the paper in January. After all, that’s a big-ass promo for Bedard. And when the Examiner‘s website got a makeover in February the homepage featured two separate links playing up his “Washington Secrets” column. Bedard didn’t get this kind of boost for his old “Washington Whispers” column at U.S News and World Report.

Examiner Executive Editor Stephen Smith tells FBDC there was no such promise.

“We never discussed any kind of promotion when we approached Paul about coming to the Washington Examiner,” he told us in an email. “We just felt his work was so good that it was worth bringing it to the attention of readers with rack cards.”