* Mr. SMITH of Texas. Mr. Speaker, the Washington Post recently published a story about alleged questionable business practices by Koch subsidiaries dating back to the 1990s. The Post received criticism for the unbalanced and incomplete story on Koch Industries.
* Patrick B. Pexton, Washington Post Ombudsman, stated ``I think The Post erred in republishing this story, or at least in the way it did. And when the Kochs complained to The Post after publication, The Post's response wasn't handled well.''
* In addition, the Ombudsman goes on to state, ``..... I think the story lacked context, was tendentious and was unfair in not reporting some of the exculpatory and contextual information ..... I think newspapers should always be provocative. But they should also be fair and provide context ..... The Post could have included a sidebar summarizing and linking to the rebuttals. It could have called Koch directly--it didn't--and put its comments in the sidebar.''
* I hope that the Washington Post will be more thorough and accurate in its reporting in the future.