Ombudsman

Ombudsman Patrick Pexton's Nov. 20 column, "For George Will, politics gets personal," was a superb investigative piece regarding whether op-ed columnist George F. Will should have been more forthcoming regarding his wife's work with Republican candidates. Pexton concluded that Will's columns were largely unaffected and that while Will could have communicated her involvement earlier, there was no intentional deception. Excellent ombudsman columns are frequently not recognized as such when they come to a "not guilty" verdict and particularly...

The Washington Post on Friday said it was ending its decades-long practice of employing an independent ombudsman to critique the newspaper's journalism and field readers' questions. The Post's ombudsman will be replaced by a reader representative, a staff member who will answer questions and respond to complaints, said Fred Hiatt, The Post's editorial page editor. The reader representative, who will report to Hiatt, might write a blog as well, but the ombudsman's long-standing Sunday column will end, he said.

I t is possible that I'll be The Washington Post's last independent ombudsman and that this chair will empty at the conclusion of my two-year term Feb. 28. If so, that will end nearly 43 years of this publication having enough courage and confidence to employ a full-time reader representative and critic. Officially, no final decision has been made. Discussions are underway within The Post about how to respond to reader complaints and concerns without an independent ombudsman.

My two-year term as The Post's independent ombudsman has run out. It has been both a privilege to serve Post readers as a pipeline to the staff and an honor to work in a newsroom of such distinguished journalists. I hope I succeeded even a little in explaining how journalism is changing in a media world transformed by new technology and new business models. The No. 1 topic of complaint to the ombudsman during my term: The Post's online comment system. About 10 percent of those complaints were about its functionality, which The Post has improved.

Early in my newspaper career nearly 40 years ago, I worked for a short-tempered editor who hated long-winded reader complaints. One day, when an irate caller said she might stop reading the paper, he turned the tables and threatened to cancel her subscription. Ah, those were the days. Newspapers were fat and smug. Readers be damned. No more. Today, even great newspapers like The Washington Post are struggling to survive, fighting for every reader. That's where I come in. As The Post's new ombudsman, I am its internal critic.

Shortly after Kathleen Mitchell became the Clarksburg ombudsman, she took Montgomery County's transportation director to Brink and Frederick roads, where she had witnessed seven crashes or near misses in a relatively short period. County officials had told her that nothing could be done to make the intersection safer until the state follows through on long-range plans to widen Route 355 from Route 27 to the Frederick County line. After transportation director Arthur Holmes Jr. saw the T-shaped intersection for himself, he...

Regarding Patrick Pexton's Feb. 17 Sunday Opinion column, "The Post's last ombudsman?" The ombudsman's column is one of my favorites: It is relevant, reasonable and revealing. The ombudsman has a broad overview of what has been published in the newspaper, as well as readers' comments and complaints, and outside critics lack the resources, motivation and diplomatic grace to compare. You've got a good ombudsman; you should keep him. At the arrival of modern media technology, the information age appeared to be a great...

Deborah Howell, a trailblazing newspaper editor who led the innovative Washington bureau of the Newhouse News Service before serving as ombudsman of The Washington Post, died Jan. 2 in an accident near Blenheim, New Zealand. She was 68. She was on vacation with her husband when she stepped out of a car to take a photograph. She was struck by an oncoming automobile. In New Zealand, drivers use the left side of the road, and her husband said he thought she looked the wrong way. Ms. Howell, who published two Pulitzer...

MOSCOW — Russia's human rights ombudsman on Thursday called the two-year prison sentences handed down to three female punk rockers "excessive" and warned that the case was igniting dangerous social tensions. A Moscow court convicted the Pussy Riot band members last Friday of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after they belted out a profanity-laced song against President Vladimir Putin on the altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February. Vladimir Lukin, whom Putin nominated for the...

Former Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell, one of the first women to lead a major U.S. newspaper, died in an accident involving an automobile in New Zealand on Saturday, according to her family. She was 68. Howell was traveling in New Zealand on vacation with her husband, C. Peter Magrath, at the time of the accident. Her stepson Nick Coleman said Howell suffered fatal injuries when struck by a vehicle. She lived in Glen Echo. Howell grew up in Texas, the daughter of a...

Regarding Patrick Pexton's Feb. 17 Sunday Opinion column, "The Post's last ombudsman?" The ombudsman's column is one of my favorites: It is relevant, reasonable and revealing. The ombudsman has a broad overview of what has been published in the newspaper, as well as readers' comments and complaints, and outside critics lack the resources, motivation and diplomatic grace to compare. You've got a good ombudsman; you should keep him. At the arrival of modern media technology, the information age appeared to be a great gift to democracy.

I t is possible that I'll be The Washington Post's last independent ombudsman and that this chair will empty at the conclusion of my two-year term Feb. 28. If so, that will end nearly 43 years of this publication having enough courage and confidence to employ a full-time reader representative and critic. Officially, no final decision has been made. Discussions are underway within The Post about how to respond to reader complaints and concerns without an independent ombudsman.

Congress should simplify the tax code to ease the burden on filers, as well as take a hard look at the myriad tax breaks that cost nearly as much revenue as the government generates from individual income taxes, according to the Internal Revenue Service's ombudsman . National Taxpayer Advocate Nina E. Olson said in her annual report to Congress on Wednesday that the existing four-million word code imposes a "significant, even unconscionable" burden...

MOSCOW — Russia's human rights ombudsman on Thursday called the two-year prison sentences handed down to three female punk rockers "excessive" and warned that the case was igniting dangerous social tensions. A Moscow court convicted the Pussy Riot band members last Friday of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred after they belted out a profanity-laced song against President Vladimir Putin on the altar of Moscow's main cathedral in February. Vladimir Lukin, whom Putin nominated for the advisory...

Ombudsman Patrick Pexton's Nov. 20 column, "For George Will, politics gets personal," was a superb investigative piece regarding whether op-ed columnist George F. Will should have been more forthcoming regarding his wife's work with Republican candidates. Pexton concluded that Will's columns were largely unaffected and that while Will could have communicated her involvement earlier, there was no intentional deception. Excellent ombudsman columns are frequently not recognized as such when they come to a "not guilty" verdict...

Regarding the March 20 ombudsman column, "The damage done by plagiarism in The Post" : In describing the recent plagiarism on the part of one of your reporters, ombudsman Patrick B. Pexton noted that the "underlying theme here is the pressure that today's minute-by-minute, Web-driven, do-more-with-less news culture puts on reporters and editors. " The facts as he described them would seem to account, at least in part, for the uncharacteristic actions and lapse in judgment on the part of an otherwise outstanding reporter.

Andrew Alexander's column will resume next week. For daily updates, read the Omblog at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ombudsman-blog/ .

825 North Capitol St. NE Washington 20002 202-442-5885 http://www.k12.dc.us/dcps/home.html Michelle A. Rhee Chancellor The chancellor is responsible for all operations within the D.C. public schools. www.k12.dc.us/dcps/home.html 202-442-5885 Fax: 202-535-1557 825 North Capitol St. NE Room 5002 Washington 20002 202-741-8777 Fax: 202-727-1149 ombudsman@dc.gov http://www.ombudsman.dc.gov The ombudsman is the city's face of customer service for...

Welcome to complaint central; take a number. That's how I feel after a week on the job as The Post's new ombudsman. My predecessor, Andrew Alexander, told me to expect this, but it's not the same thing as actually listening to the dozens of daily phone calls and sifting through the hundreds of e-mails from Post readers. Here's what I learned in just one week: Post readers are discerning and demanding, know a thing or two about grammar, and often are just plain frustrated and angry, mostly at mistakes in print and online.

Shortly after Kathleen Mitchell became the Clarksburg ombudsman, she took Montgomery County's transportation director to Brink and Frederick roads, where she had witnessed seven crashes or near misses in a relatively short period. County officials had told her that nothing could be done to make the intersection safer until the state follows through on long-range plans to widen Route 355 from Route 27 to the Frederick County line. After transportation director Arthur Holmes Jr. saw the T-shaped...