Bottom line: Cheap Seats Daily's hype of Dim WitsGate™ is validated!

From all the hate going Henson's way on Sunday's postgame shows on local sportstalk stations, I was certain this was going to develop into the biggest Redskins controversy ever generated by an inactive linebacker using new media. Or at least one of the biggest Redskins controversies ever generated by an inactive linebacker using new media.

And now it's on the front page!

Also, it's always nice to see former longtime DC resident the Great Dan Steinberg, the Woodward & Bernstein of Dim WitsGate™, on A1.

(Full disclosure: I still have my 35-year-old "Nixon Resigns" issue of the Washington Post in my paperboy bag in the basement. I'll get 'em out for Halloween. Hence the "-Gate" fetish...)

***

There they go again. Dan Snyder is using his web site to go to war with the Washington Post.

(AFTER THE JUMP: Is Henson being used to take heat off the real Redskins villains? Pravda's Ashburn bureau strikes again? How would you copy-edit multiple Twitters? Leonard Shapiro now using out-of-town newspapers to blast Dan Snyder? The NFL's blackout policy is as big a sham as the Skins waiting list?)

"Robert Henson did not get on the field on Sunday," read the faux news article written by Skins PR man Gary Fitzgerald and posted yesterday on Redskins.com, "but somehow he’s the talk of the town and strangely enough he’s a big headline in The Washington Post...Henson’s apologies on Twitter and in his Monday media session–as well as Zorn's comments on the young linebacker–were not fully included in a Tuesday story in The Washington Post. The article focused more on the mistake and not the contrition."

I pity the tool who had to put a byline on that.

If the organization hadn't already proven it can't do anything right PR-wise, I'd be wondering if this whole Post-bashing exercise wasn't a ploy to deflect the media's attention away from Jim Zorn, Dan Snyder, Jason Campbell, Vinny Cerrato, and the parking and tailgating fiasco at FedExField.

They'd all be getting more play, and taking a bigger beating, if Henson wasn't all thumbs.

***

For those not obsessed with the Redskins off-field soap opera, Steinberg's A1 story had an interesting copy-editing situation, if that ain't oxymoronical. Here's how some of Robert Henson's Twitter ramblings appeared in the Post:

"No I didn't play but I still made more than you in a year and you'd [gladly] switch spots with me in a second," Henson wrote during a string of responses. "I was talking to the fans [who] said the crazy stuff, I'm use [to heckling] but I've never been booed in my own stadium. Again that was for the half hearted but if everyone wants to jump in come on. The question is who are you to say you know what's best for the team and you work 9 to 5 at Mcdonalds [sic]. You don't wanna follow me anymore then fine but we play for you and win lose or draw we represent you!! My guy on the Rams said they never got booed even when they didn't win a game."

That paragraph was made up of more than one of Henson's Twitters, yet was treated as a single quote.

I've never come across this situation before, and I'm guessing AP Style hasn't yet weighed in on how to treat multiple Twitters. So this is a time for Post copy editors to leave a lasting mark on their craft. I'm going to have to stare at my WWABD bracelet ("What Would Andrew Beaujon Do?") before I decide if this is correct copyediting or not.

***

Leonard Shapiro had to go to Miami to run this story blasting Dan Snyder as the worst owner in the NFL. I can't find it locally. Why didn't the Washington Post run it?

***

Now that everybody but the crazies accepts that Dan Snyder's season tickets waiting list is bogus and has been bogus for years, I wish somebody would expose the NFL's blackout policy as a similar fraud.

All you need to know: The Skins home games ain't sold out — the team was selling general admission tickets for the Rams game through email blasts all week — yet the games are on TV.

Case closed. Shut up.

Obviously, the NFL owners have as much motivation to enforce the blackout rule as they do to enforce the steroids prohibition.

Oh, right: Only baseball players and cyclists are dopers!

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

This past weekend, I visited a Wal-Mart in Tappahannock, Va. Or maybe I went to a Walmart. Signage inside and outside the store spelled the chain's name all closed up, with the "m" lowercased. But many of the products I looked at also stated they were distributed by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This is the kind of thing that drives copy editors coconuts!

So I called Wal-Mart/Walmart this morning. All the media relations people were in a meeting, which if you work for a small newspaper is more or less where they will always be when you call.

The person I spoke to, who I cannot quote by name because this individual is not an official media relations person, told me that the store should be referred to as "Walmart" in stories.

"The store is one word," this person told me. I asked about the company's Web site, which on many pages refers to "Wal-Mart" in the title bar but "Walmart" below the buttons. "It's all moving to one word, but for legal purposes it's two words," the person who is not an official spokesperson told me. I asked if the company had issued a press release on this matter, and the nonofficial spokesperson assured me they had. Three hours ago, that person told me an official press spokesperson would call me back, which I expect to happen sometime in 2011, or maybe after this post goes up.

Here is what I found on Wal-Mart/Walmart's page of press releases: 28 instances where the stores or the corporation are referred to as "Wal-Mart." Eighty references to "Walmart." (I didn't count walmart.com.)

If this is a rebranding, it seems uncharacteristically inept for a chain of this size. AP style on the mega-chain is Wal-Mart, which unlike the store's logo, has not changed (see below). Until Wal-Mart applies a little internal consistency, I don't see any reason to break it. Wal-Mart: I would love to hear from you: 202-332-2100 x.249/abeaujon@washcp.com.

UPDATE, 12:37 P.M.: Mark Allen, who knows more about AP style than anyone on this planet, Twitters me: "@abeaujon Great blog. AP updated this online last month: 'Wal-Mart Stores Inc. [for the] company ... . Use Walmart [for the] stores.'"

UPDATE, 2:49 P.M.: E.R. Anderson, the regional media director for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., writes me to say:

Walmart’s U.S. locations have update store logos as part of an ongoing evolution of its brand – you may have seen this in store signage and recent print advertisements and TV commercials.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the legal trade name of the corporation. The name "Walmart," expressed as one word and without punctuation, is a trademark of the company and is used analogously to describe the company and its stores. Use the trade name when it is necessary to identify the legal entity, such as when reporting financial results, litigation or corporate governance.

I look at it that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc is our legal name and Walmart is our nickname. Elizabeth is my given name but everyone calls me E.R. Does that make sense?

Yes, it makes sense, but I think this is a problem, copy-wise, as is the AP's new rule. I think it's gonna make copy look sloppy; e.g., when a band like Kiss does a deal with Wal-Mart to sell its new album exclusively in Walmart. I say: Until the evolution is complete, keep the hypen!