Newswatch: The Pulitzer Hoax-Who Can Be Believed?

The scandal simply would not go away. For days after it broke, the Washington Post harped on the shame it felt for having published the hoax that won a Pulitzer—the touching but phony story of an eight-year-old dope addict. The following Sunday the paper filled 3½ pages with a remarkably frank and thorough examination of how it happened, written by the newspaper's ombudsman, Bill Green. One word among his 18,000 words said it all: "Inexcusable." To publish Green's findings without change did credit to an excellent newspaper, but the findings themselves gave...