Photo by Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie.

Yesterday, former Washington Post reporter Jose Antonio Vargas revealed in a piece published by the New York Times Magazine that he is an undocumented immigrant. While Vargas’ piece was eye-opening and could possibly could lead to him being deported, we also found it interesting that the paper where Vargas won a Pulitzer, the Post, didn’t run with the story.

According to the Post’s own reporting on the subject, editors at the paper were scared off by an inconsistency they found during weeks of editing Vargas’ story:

Vargas approached his old newspaper in March with the idea of writing a personal account of his immigration and work history. The story underwent multiple drafts and was on the verge of being published Sunday. The newspaper sent a photographer, Bonnie Jo Mount, to New York to take pictures of Vargas to accompany his piece. But Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the story several days before it was scheduled to be published. “We made a considered judgment not to publish the story,” Brauchli said Wednesday. “We knew Jose would take his story elsewhere, and we’re not surprised he found a venue for his interesting account.”

Brauchli declined to discuss the reasons for spiking Vargas’s article.

Given the subject — a reporter’s dishonesty about his personal life — The Post subjected Vargas’s story to an unusual degree of scrutiny. One red flag popped up during weeks of checking: Vargas hadn’t disclosed that he had replaced his expired Oregon driver’s license with a new one issued by Washington state (the license had enabled Vargas to pass airport security and to travel to distant work assignments). Vargas later conceded that he had withheld the information on the advice of his attorney. The disclosure set off internal discussion about whether the newspaper was getting the full story from its former reporter.

While we can’t blame the Post for trying to be extra careful, we have to wonder — what exactly would Vargas have to gain by fabricating a story that he had hidden for so many years and which could potentially get him booted out of the country?

In any case, it’s always nice to be reminded that the Post still is carrying one legendary inferiority complex toward the Times:

Vargas then contacted editors at the New York Times’ magazine. The newspaper found his story so compelling after seeing a copy Friday, just 48 hours before the magazine’s June 26 issue was to close, that its editors decided to rush the article into print.

This gave the story a singular distinction: It may be the first published by the New York Times that was developed, fact-checked and substantially edited by editors at The Washington Post.

Great. You guys want a cookie or something?