The December issue of Rolling Stone includes a fascinating story about the PR firm hired by the Bush administration to spread pro-war propaganda in the media. The article names names behind the deception that led to a war that has cost tens of thousands of lives, so it's no surprise that spin-master John Rendon, the article's subject, takes umbrage with the way he is presented in the magazine. More surprising, though, is that a lot of the dissent about the article revolves around lamb chops.

In the piece, author James Bamford describes his unlikely meal with Rendon, a man who has not granted an interview in decades. "Over a dinner of lamb chops and a bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape at a private Washington club," Bamford writes, the two discussed Rendon's role in the American wars of the last two decades.

In a reply letter to Rolling Stone, the Renford Group writes that this is not a fair characterization of the meal:

Bamford implies that the location of his interview with Mr. Rendon, the menu and the expensive French wine were all of Mr. Rendon's choosing. Readers of Rolling Stone should know that Mr. Rendon was an invited guest to Mr. Bamford's elite Washington club described in the story and that Mr. Bamford ordered the French wine and lamb chops. Mr. Rendon had seafood.

Bamford then provides a rebuttal:

Finally, I never implied "that the location of his interview with Mr. Rendon, the menu and the expensive French wine were all of Mr. Rendon's choosing." It is a common practice for journalists to pay for a meal when asking someone out to dinner for a long interview. The wine was actually one in the middle price range on the menu and the choice of the club was largely for Mr. Rendon's privacy, not mine. According to the receipt, Mr. Rendon ordered "sate lamb chops"—I never eat lamb chops. And just for the record, I also paid for Mr. Rendon's apple tart dessert and his coffee—decaf black.

While Gelf thinks that a journalist buying a meal for a source is substantially more ethical than the other way around, both setups introduce an unnecessarily financial aspect to the relationship.

If Rolling Stone were really worried about disclosing all of the facts to its readers, though, it would be helpful if its updated online article contained more than this editor's note: "NOTE: This story has been updated to make two clarifications to the original, published version".

For those readers who lack the time to meticulously compare the two versions, here are the two parts that were changed.

John Walter Rendon Jr. rises at 3 a.m. each morning after six hours of sleep, turns on his Apple computer and begins ingesting information—overnight news reports, e-mail messages, foreign and domestic newspapers, and an assortment of government documents.

Leaves out (at the end): "many of them available only to those with the highest security clearance."

And

The Kuwaiti government in exile agreed to pay Rendon $100,000 a month for his assistance.

Leaves out (at the start): "Working through an organization called Citizens for a Free Kuwait,"

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