"We are inevitably the mouthpiece for whatever administration is in power"

The Post today offers up a less-than-scathing criticism of its pre-war coverage. The article focuses on a number of pieces raising questions about administration assertions that were placed at safe distances from page 1, and to a lesser degree on the relative paucity of such pieces. It says almost nothing about the sycophantic bellicosity of the paper's editorial page.

Liz Spayd, the paper's assistant managing editor for national news is quoted as saying, "I believe we pushed as hard or harder than anyone to question the administration's assertions on all kinds of subjects related to the war. . . . Do I wish we would have had more and pushed harder and deeper into questions of whether they possessed weapons of mass destruction? Absolutely," she said. "Do I feel we owe our readers an apology? I don't think so."

If Post readers aren't owed an apology, I suppose families of the thousands of dead here and in Iraq shouldn't expect one either.