Double Standard. Until this morning, the Washington Post had either ignored the FIBA Women's World Championship (literally -- some U.S. games were not even reported on) or given Team USA's results in one or two sentences within a larger "News & Notes" section of snippets about various subjects compiled from news services. Never a picture, never a headline, never more than about a inch of type (usually much less) as the American dream team secured victory after victory during the first two rounds and the quarter finals.

Today, however, was very different. The BasketCases opened their paper this morning to see the following huge, screaming, bold faced headline on page 2 of the Sports section: "U.S. Loses in Women's Basketball." This was followed by a four paragraph story probably taking up more space than the paper had devoted to the rest of the tournament combined. And, above the headline was an enormous picture from the game as well (a really ugly picture of Katie Smith), six and a half inches high, six inches wide (!) and in color no less. The BasketCases had earlier complained to the Post's Sports Editor about the virtual lack of coverage, to no avail. When the phones open this morning, we'll be complaining about the double standard and the editorial choice to throw Team USA's defeat in people's faces when it virtually ignored the team's wins.

Nothing will change if the Post doesn't hear from people about this. If you'd like to make a call, the Sports Editor is Emilio Garcia Ruiz, and he can be reached through the paper's main number, 202-334-6000.