In an article about the White House's town hall meeting, where Obama addressed questions submitted online, the Times headline today reads, “Obama skirts pot query on Web forum.” [Emphasis added]

The article's firs paragraph details:

President Obama used the White House´s first-ever “virtual town-hall” meeting to sell his budget, but dismissed with a joke one of the Internet participants' top topics - the legalization of marijuana as a way to curb escalating drug violence in Mexico.

Mr. Obama framed the marijuana questions solely through the narrow lens of economic recovery and laughed off the issue.

“I don't know what this says about the online audience,” he said, with the live audience laughing along. “The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”

It's true Obama did make light of the overwhelming online interest in the marijuana question. But he also stated quite clearly his position: “I don't think that is a good strategy to grow out economy.” We're not sure where the “skirts” part comes in.

In fact, a more accurate Times headline would be:

“Obama answers pot query on Web forum.”

But that's not as provocative, is it?

UPDATE: By contrast, look at how Reuters reported on the same event [emphasis added]:

Legalizing marijuana is not the kind of change President Barack Obama can believe in -- -- at least not as a remedy for the ailing U.S. economy. On Thursday, Obama tackled the issue head-on, only half-jokingly, at an online townhall meeting where he noted that the idea was a favorite among the 3.6 million people who voted on more than 100,000 questions submitted on the White House website.