Thursday, March 23, 2006
The continuing NYT trainwreck
Perhaps we have reached the point where the deteriorating quality of the New York times ceases to be infuriating and simply becomes sad. Like CBS before it, it increasingly appears to lack even the most basic editorial review process in its efforts to make the administration look bad. Whatever way you lean, to have the NYT making these kinds of errors is a disgrace to our country's great journalistic traditions.
Here's today's gem from the corrections page (via Lucianne):
I hope we don't hear any more pompous newsmen criticizing fact checking on the blogosphere any time soon.
Here's today's gem from the corrections page (via Lucianne):
An article in The Metro Section on March 8 profiled Donna Fenton, identifying her as a 37-year-old victim of Hurricane Katrina who had fled Biloxi, Miss., and who was frustrated in efforts to get federal aid as she and her children remained as emergency residents of a hotel in Queens.
Yesterday, the New York police arrested Ms. Fenton, charging her with several counts of welfare fraud and grand larceny. Prosecutors in Brooklyn say she was not a Katrina victim, never lived in Biloxi and had improperly received thousands of dollars in government aid. Ms. Fenton has pleaded not guilty.
For its profile, The Times did not conduct adequate interviews or public record checks to verify Ms. Fenton's account, including her claim that she had lived in Biloxi. Such checks would have uncovered a fraud conviction and raised serious questions about the truthfulness of her account.
I hope we don't hear any more pompous newsmen criticizing fact checking on the blogosphere any time soon.
2 Comments:
By 
ScurvyOaks, at
Thu Mar 23, 01:13:00 PM:
One would expect journalism schools to teach fact checking. But I guess those ass-milliner faculties can't be bothered.
By Dawnfire82, at
Thu Mar 23, 08:43:00 PM:
I've sometimes fantasized about contacting the NYT (or some other big name media outlets) and trying to sell them some ridiculous conspiracy theory, begging anonymity because of fear of 'retaliation.' I probably have just enough credentials and imagination to pull it off, too. Now, only if it wouldn't get me discharged...
