UPDATE: The Case of the Missing 'Post' Posting (Probably) Solved!

It looked like 1) just a technical glitch or  hacking  2) the usual case of a news outlet pulling back a story to do more checking 3)  someone pushed a button too early on a story being held for a later date 4) a bombshell report was killed because of pressure from a presidential campaign  5) none of the above.

We still don't know for certain, but The Washington Post says it had something to do with an unedited caption to a video that should not have gone up.  But what about the video itself? And a separate documents file?

Tonight we got more of an answer when the Post posted a lengthy story.  Perhaps the correct answer was #3 above?  Or was part of the original offering pulled back?

We put together the above quiz prompted by a flurry of postings all along the liberal blogosphere after someone discovered there was a Google url link to a Washington Post web story or video that seemingly went up last night -- but now led to an empty page. But since the Comments section on that page remains active, dozens of visitors have now typed in messages ripping the Post or pleading with it to restore or explain. Complicating matters, another Web detective found a separate url suggesting that the Post may have posted documents related to the same story, also now missing.

The story swirls around one Tom Gosinski (see photo), who was a close observer of the well-known, but not often mentioned these days, episode from the 1990s involving Cindy McCain's drug addiction and a charity she and Gosinki both worked for. He re-emerged this week -- the web site Raw Story did a major piece -- but has not yet hit the mainstream media.

So what does the Post say? Liz Spayd, editor of washingtonpost.com, told E&P this afternoon that an unedited caption was mistakenly posted on the Web site on Wednesday for a video. "It wasn't intended to go on the site," she explained. "We mistakenly published a caption to a video."

Spayd declined to specify if the caption was to a Gosinski video and would not say if the video would eventually be posted: "I am not really saying anything else about it. We don’t say anything about what we haven't published." (It's possible that someone jumped the gun and a full report will be launched any time now.)  She had no explanation for why the Comments section for an empty page remains operating.

Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli referred questions to Managing Editor Phil Bennett, who had no further information. Then the Post story on Gosinki and McCain appeared tonight. No video or documents file, though, raising the possibility that they were planned, then axed.   -- Joe Strupp and Greg Mitchell

Comments

[WaPo'd Upside The Head]

That's weird. They put up the picture of the whistleblower and the caption is what's wrong? Not the picture? Yet that caption fits nicely with what rawstory.com has posted today.

WaPo should be blushing mightily right now.

[PhD9]

It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't a story that's just DYING for more attention!

[enver]

The Memory Hole is indeed alive and well.
We have always been at war with Eurasia.

[sukabi]

from the Wapo's comments I'd have to deduce that the answer to what happened to the story was #4.

[Tom]

# 4 is right, but then the editorial staff, Broder, Will, Gerson, Brooks, Ignatious, etc. already are in the tank for the GOP

[castanea]

Just more pointless bread and circuses this election season to keep the focus off any meaningful discussions. Thanks, WaPo, for getting yourself some free publicity.

[RickD]

Well, that explanation makes sense. Because retyping a caption - I mean, that could take hours! Days!