Post defends quote of Cheney obscenity

WASHINGTON, June 25 (UPI) -- The executive editor of the Washington Post on Friday defended the newspaper's printing of the obscenity used by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney ended a heated conversation with Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., with, a short sentence that included a four-letter expletive.

Most media coverage of the outburst used a euphemism -- such as "the F word" -- for Cheney's comment. The Post printed the word.

A report on the Washington Post's Web site quoted Executive Editor Leonard Downie as saying, "When the vice president of the United States says it to a senator in the way in which he did on the Senate floor, readers need to judge for themselves what the word is because we don't play games at The Washington Post and use dashes."

The newspaper said that by Friday afternoon a few dozen readers had complained, with one sending an e-mail message stating, "How utterly sad for your fine paper."