Ira Stoll made a name for himself tilting at the left-leaning windmills over at the Times, so you'd think he'd know how to cover up his own biases. Wrong. His paean to the anti-Saudi cause, "Kingdom Could Face Sanctions," tells of a federal commission's report deploring the lack of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. Given how many federal commissions there are, and how many make recommendations to the government every year, it's hard to see this report in particular as top-of-the-page material, especially given the consequences it will have in US policy — namely, none. (We doubt the Sun would report on, say, recommendations on alternative energy.) Of course, we can't be sure, because the article cites, outside the report itself, only one other source, a State Department official who says only that the administration will "consider carefully the commission's recommendations."

In Stoll's fantasy world (where the Saudis are not allies but quotation-marked "friends"), the mere existence of a report means the government is about to act; hence the subhead "Law Compels the President to Make a Decision." But — surprise — that's misleading, because the law in question comes into play only if the administration accepts the report. As Stoll himself admits (thought not until the jump), if accepted the report requires a presidential response within the next 90 days, which even then could include sanctions or no action at all. Looking back from the end of the article, the "Kingdom Could Face Sanctions" subhead is not only a bout of wishful thinking on Stoll's part, but it's also unsubstantiated by any of the story's meager quotes. And, like any good journalist, Stoll really knows the value of an article's lede graph. In fact, it's so important that it appears twice in a row. Ouch. Note to Lipsky: If Lord Black ever fronts you some more cash, you might want to hire a copy editor. We hear they're a good check against these sorts of things.

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Despite the Sun's repeated promise to focus on New York City, today's lead stories are about the Middle East, the first culled from "Staff and Wire Reports," and the above-thrashed Stoll bit. Of the next two stories (still above the fold), one reports possible Avery Fisher Hall renovations — the only original news on the page — and another reports a comment by former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in the American Enterprise that Brooklyn's 1898 affiliation with New York was a mistake. Neither the comment, nor the secessionist movement (which the story admits is virtually nonexistent), would be front-page real estate in any other newsroom. The final two articles, both below the fold, are puff pieces about cheese and the Tribeca Film Festival.

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SUCKS TO GET SCOOPED: Too bad for the Sun that the New York Times's metro desk doesn't share its malaise. Today's Times front page breaks EPA plans to "Lead Cleanup Effort of Homes Close to Ground Zero: Agency Reverses Policy 8 Months After Disaster." Given how Monday's Sun, in a painfully one-sided story, showed its umbrage with the EPA and its policy, you'd think it would look for news like today's. For the 12-page paper where "every issue revolves around New York," it's a bad day when it goes with front-page stories about unpasteurized cheese and the Times is cleaning up on city news.