Scroll down a ways in these March 15 Washington Post corrections until you come to the ones pertaining to the Post’s March 13 story Gridiron Club dinner:
A March 13 Style article on the annual Gridiron Dinner incorrectly described Gridiron President Dick Ryan as the Detroit News’s Washington bureau chief; he is the newspaper’s senior Washington correspondent. In some editions, the article incorrectly reported that a satirical version of “Sweet Home Alabama” was performed at the dinner and described reaction to it. Such a skit was written, but it was dropped before the final performance. Also, a photo caption identified attendee Mark Shields as Mark Russell.
The most embarrassing correction, of course, is the one placed in the middle. The skit in quesiton was supposed to be about Armstrong Williams and the fact that he accepted money from the Department of Education in connection with his support for No Child Left Behind. However, the skit never took place, apparently because the lead performer got sick. Nonetheless, Post reporter Neely Tucker reported on the skit and the audience’s alleged reaction to it. He stated, “it was really pretty darned funny, we are told, but maybe there was a blue-state barkeep working in the room.” Under the Gridiron Club’s rules, reporters like Tucker are not permitted to attend the dinner. But they are permitted to talk to people who attended instead of pretending to have done so.
Here is Tucker’s story minus the bogus description of the skit about Williams.
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