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US State Department Declares War on Washington Post
The State Department declared war on one of the United States' most respected newspapers on Thursday, blasting The Washington Post for critical reports it described as "inaccurate," "ludicrous" and "self-serving."
The unusual attack, delivered by spokesman Philip Reeker at his daily news briefing, followed the publication of the editorial on Thursday alleging the department was indifferent to the plight of American parents whose children have been abducted and brought to foreign countries.
"The accusations made in the editorial today, most especially that we somehow treat these cases with indifference or worse, are completely groundless," Reeker said, noting the piece in question had been based on an earlier report in the paper.
"We were extremely disappointed by both the article and the editorial, neither of which accurately depicts the depth and seriousness of our efforts in these cases," he told reporters.
He made little attempt to disguise his contempt for the Post and maintained not only that the story and editorial were incorrect, but that the newspaper had intentionally ignored information provided by the State Department to reporters covering the child abduction issue.
"We regret that the Post has consistently been unable or unwilling to take a fair and more honest approach to this very serious topic," Reeker said, ridiculing the paper's suggestion that only its own reporting had caused the matter to be dealt with more seriously.
"The implication in the article that somehow Washington Post stories that date back many months on this subject ... pushed us to take a more proactive approach on this are ludicrous and ultimately self-serving," he said.
Allowing that child abduction had at one time not received the attention it should have, Reeker pointed out the department itself had corrected the deficiencies well before the Post began its reports.
"The Office of Children's Issues has nearly tripled in the last three years, an effort that began well-before The Washington Post even discovered that international child abduction existed," he said sarcastically.
Reeker stopped short of demanding a retraction or apology from the paper, saying any move to revise the reports or the editorial would have to come from the Post itself.
Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler, who handles complaints about the paper's coverage, declined to comment on Reeker's remarks and referred questions about them to the daily's public relations office.
A Post spokeswoman did not return phone calls seeking a response.
The Post editorial, took note of complaints reported in the earlier stories lodged by parents who said they had been badly treated by officials at the State Department and the Department of Justice when they looked for help in getting their abducted children returned.
"It's hard to see why the US government would treat with indifference + sometimes even contempt + the efforts of parents seeking the return of children who have been illegally abducted and spirited overseas during custody disputes," the Post wrote.
"Neither the FBI nor the State Department has been functioning well in this capacity - at least not consistently," the editorial said, citing as evidence the complaints of parents quoted in its earlier reports, the most recent of which appeared at the weekend. (Agencies)
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