What to make of this dispute? One minor detail: LeDuff does not deny making up Mrs. Beidler's collar-patting. Another minor detail: LeDuff quoted Mrs. Beidler as saying, "I'll cry myself to sleep, I'm sure," but LeDuff in his defensive memo substitutes "probably" for the emphatic "I'm sure." A major detail: The most LeDuff can say in his own defense is that he asked Beidler a question about battery powered cars and Beidler didn't rise to the bait.

When reporters and those they quote disagree about what was said and in what context, here's a useful test: See whether the disputed quotations and characterizations fit neatly into a publication's agenda. The neater the fit, the more likely the reporter used real people as stage props. In this case, the Jan. 18 LeDuff story mirrored the anti-Iraq-war position of the Times' editorial pages, which suggested the war was a war for oil that is not even truly needed.

Senior editor Borders concluded that LeDuff "thinks that he accurately represented his interview with you and your wife, and therefore so do I. ... If you have another encounter some day with The New York Times, I hope its outcome is more satisfactory to you."

Beidler wrote back: "I will never again allow a reporter from The New York Times to interview me or a member of my family. There will be no opportunity for ‘another encounter' and no chance for your paper to rise above the reputation you've established in my eyes."