When the story first appeared, it was criticized almost immediately by Columbia Journalism Review and a host of liberral bloggers, who argued that it didn't do enough to clearly tell readers that the rumors were false. Soon after, Chris Daly, a Boston University journalism professor wrote a post that made an issue of Mr. Bacon's age -- 27. That post was linked to by the popular journalism blog run by Jim Romenesko, prompting a flood of letters in suport of Mr. Bacon from veteran political reporters, including The Times' Adam Nagourney, Time's Karen Tumulty, and The Washington Post's Peter Baker. Post executive editor Len Downie even criticized Mr. Romenesko for linking to Mr. Daly's post.

Today's Times story depicts everyone sticking to their guns--mostly. Mr. Downie calls Mr. Daly's post "an unjustified personal attack," while Mr. Romenesko says: "There's no reason I should have passed on Chris Daly's blog post." Mr. Daly, for his part, allows that his post "didn't come out right."