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WaPo hypes Gitmo story to give it news peg

By Mark Obbie

This story in today's Washington Post by Karen DeYoung and Peter Finn has a superficial, he-said/she-said balance that at first makes the story seem like real news. Officials from the Obama administration say that they are just now realizing what a mess the government's records on Guantanamo detainees are. Some Bush administration officials acknowledge that's true; others deny it; and still others say that the new guys are just making excuses for their inevitable failure to resolve the situation quickly. They're Beltway sources, so of course most speak not-for-attribution. But the tit-for-tat heart of the story seems clear enough: a fresh controversy, opposing views of reality, and a new administration confronting another big problem. The Post doesn't hide which view it finds most compelling. The heds (at least for the Web) read:And here's the lede:Give the story a closer read, especially near the end, however, and you may come away wondering what the hook for the story really is. To counter a Pentagon spokesman's claim that the information is accessible, the writers offer this:Interesting! But why, then, is the story pegged to discoveries made this week? I think I know the answer: The chosen angle was sexier than one that would say, in effect: Now that the Obama team is in power, it must confront a record-keeping problem that has frustrated others for months (or years?). That's still important and newsworthy. It has the added benefit of being true.

Full post as published by Lawbeat on January 25, 2009 (boomark / email).