According to a Post memo: "Wil will train his unique voice on the turbulent political landscape, the fragile economy, and the social and cultural changes that have gone unchronicled in America." Boy, that sounds almost like a nut graph from an enterprise story itself—just tack on an anecdotal lede, and we'll be ready for A01!

Full memo after the jump!

We are pleased to announce that Wil Haygood, one of journalism’s most gifted storytellers, will join the National Enterprise team headed by David Finkel.

Wil will train his unique voice on the turbulent political landscape, the fragile economy, and the social and cultural changes that have gone unchronicled in America. Wil’s work in Style, his current home, and elsewhere in The Post is well known to his colleagues and to our readers.

From Hurricane Katrina to a father’s fear for his Haitian family, from Alabama logger Clarence “Sunnyman” Primm to former White House butler Eugene Allen, Wil has brought originality and vividness to the subjects he has touched.

We expect Wil’s byline will continue to appear on the front page, in Style, and anywhere else stories can be told. He will join us as soon as he completes remaining Style assignments.

Kevin (Merida) David (Finkel)

So far, so murky: "Being for, and about Washington" doesn't clarify too much, especially when you consider that "Washington" is the locus of infinite local and national stories.

Item No. 2 in the Mystery of the Washington Post's Murky Mission: Last week, just after news broke that the Post would be closing its remaining domestic bureaus in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli is quoted in his own paper as follows: "We are not a national news organization of record serving a general audience. Nor are we a wire service or cable channel."

So far, so more murky: So you're not a "national news organization of record." Are you a national news organization of unrecord, or off-the-record? What does this whole "of record" thing mean? And if you're not a national news organization, why do you retain a sizable "national" desk. And if you're not a national news organization, why do you cover television with as many resources as you do? If there's one thing that's national, it's tube.

Item No. 3 in the Mystery of the Washington Post's Murky Mission: In the course of reporting a blog post about the Post, City Desk wrings the following statement out of Post spokesperson Kris Coratti: “We cover news of interest to our audience, whether it is local, national or international. That hasn’t changed and that won’t change."

So far, so terribly murky: Now, it seems, the Post's whole reportorial outlook is merely reactive. If it appears that some readers want more national stuff, then Congress and global warming legislation they'll get. If it appears that they want a bit more local, then, hey, let's go long and hard on Mayor Fenty. And if they develop a bit more curiosity about foreign affairs, double down on troops in Afghanistan.

The Coratti quote reflects just how much chaos is at work in the Post's control room. Depending on how you define it, poll it, and focus-group it, your audience can be anything; it can want anything and everything. If your strategy means that you'll cover pretty much everything so long as some people want to read it, then the strategy isn't saying too much.

That leaves anyone the Washington Times has so far got on the horn to speculate. Officially, of course, there's no comment other than, "We'll get to the bottom of this."

But Caps enforcer Donald Brashear has weighed in: "We get tested two, three times a year and there's never been anybody who's tested positive....Was [Thomas] supplying this year? Was it a few years ago when there was no testing...to tell you the truth, if there was, I didn't know. There's no sign of anybody I know who used steroids."

Former Cap and current Panther Steve Eminger is similarly incredulous his former teammates doped up. "No, never, not once—[steroids were] never talked about once...I don't know, you see guys. Guys aren't extremely ripped or anything."

So who's got the Florida hookup then?