In its Sunday Style section, the Post claimed Williams was the target of a lampoon at the annual Gridiron Club dinner held this past Saturday night.

The Gridiron dinner is a conclave of Washington’s leading journalists, who invite the Capitol’s movers and shakers for a night of roasting and satire.

The Post claimed Williams was the target of some of that skewering.

Here’s what the Post said happened at the Gridiron dinner:

"Syndicated columnist Armstrong Williams – who took payments from the Bush administration for plugging its social programs in his op-ed space – got his to the tune of ‘Sweet Home Alabama,’ the southern-fried rock anthem.

"The original Lynyrd Skynyrd song (which Beltwayers should know includes the line ‘Now Watergate does not bother me’) has this chorus: ‘Sweet Home Alabama, where the skies are so blue / Sweet Home Alabama, Lord I’m coming home to you.’

"But as sung last night, the revised chorus morphed into:

"Armstrong’s propaganda
It sounds so true
He’ll tout our agenda
When the check goes through”

Some may have found the skit funny ... but it never happened.

Though the Gridiron had planned to do a skit on Williams, at the last minute it was dropped from the program.

The Post’s concoction becomes even more interesting, as they detailed the Gridiron audience’s reaction to the Williams skit.

"It was really pretty darned funny, we are told, but maybe there was a blue-state barkeep working the room,” the paper said.

While the Post reporter never claimed to have seen the performance - and we understand that newspapers often write stories beforehand for late-night events (and are often provided advance scripts and speeches) - we thought the glaring faux pas by the paper, which has made such a stink about Williams’ admitted faux pas, deserved a bit more attention from them and the media.

And then there is the matter of the retraction.

The Post quickly retracted the item, reporting that "the article incorrectly reported that a satirical version of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ was performed at the [Gridiron Club] dinner and described reaction to it. Such a skit was written, but it was dropped before the final performance."

Could the paper have bothered to note in the retraction that its item was on "Armstrong Williams" and was, in fact, dead wrong?

Williams is fuming about the paper’s misleading report, weak retraction and apparent agenda to make him look bad. "There are few people in the world who could connect the Washington Post's correction to the fabricated story regarding me, because the correction never mentioned my name," Williams told NewsMax. "I am still owed at least an apology."

Perhaps next year the Post could be skewered at the Gridiron Club dinner with these lines:

"The Washington Post’s propaganda
It sounds so true
They’ll tout their agenda
Especially when there’s a conservative to be skewered through."

Editor's note: