From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

Every so often we like to do the anatomy of a significant news story.

One such broke last week in the Washington Post,

describing a Pentagon briefing in which Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally of 70 years standing,

was described as our nation's enemy and a

kernel of evil in the world. It ran Tuesday on page one, above the fold, and by Tuesday afternoon,

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was on the defensive himself, rejecting the story's

premise, albeit none too forcefully.

Saudi Arabia is like any other country.

It has a broad spectrum of activities and things,

some of which obviously, just like our country,

that we agree with and some we may not.

It is nonetheless a country where we have a lot of forces located

and we have had a long relationship.

Joining us now is the author of the story, Washington Post-Military correspondent Thomas Ricks.

Tom, welcome to on the media.

Thanks for having me.

Let's talk about the story for a moment.

The piece was about a briefing by an outside consultant connected with the Rand Corporation to the defense policy board.

What is the defense policy board? It doesn't actually make defense policy.

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