Dancing Bear-Gate Strikes The Washington Post

ANALYSIS

(Nov. 3) -- The Washington Post has a long and storied tradition of groundbreaking journalism, the pinnacle of which still arguably remains the Watergate investigation. As recently as Monday, staff writer Andrew Higgins produced a great story on U.S. military contracts to shady operators in Kyrgyzstan.

Unfortunately, Higgins story didn't go far enough to remove the self-administered taint on the Post that came a couple of weeks ago, when it posted prominently a video of dancing bears on its website.

The segment was introduced by a new hire who's supposed to promote the paper's video presence. "Hi everyone. I'm Anqoinette Crosby in The Washington Post newsroom," Crosby says. "Well, 'Dancing With the Stars' has nothing on these four-legged amazing animals. Take a look at some incredible real footage of bears moving and grooving like the pros."

The veteran newsroom reporting staff was not amused.

"Almost from the minute it was posted, newsroom staffers contacted me with reactions ranging from raised eyebrows to horror," Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander reported Tuesday. "The most painful moment of it was the close, where it fades off the last dancing bear and we go to black and the words 'The Washington Post' come up," added Defense and Foreign Policy Editor Cameron W. Barr.

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This is not the first of missteps by the Post's relatively new top brass, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli and Publisher Katharine Weymouth (granddaughter of late chairman Katharine Graham): Last year, amid uproar, Weymouth canceled a planned "salon" at her home, which would have had lobbyists paying thousands of dollars to cozy up to the paper's senior reporters and editors. The paper has also taken heat in liberal quarters for the largely conservative tone of its editorial pages, especially given that Washington, D.C., is a strong Democratic city. The once-great paper is now more of a local rag, anyway, as it's shuttered every domestic bureau outside of D.C.

But it's nothing a few dancing bears can't solve, right?

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