Friday, April 10, 2009

New York Times Eating Crow (Sort Of) With Correction of Bird-Brained Story


What Happens When Even The Fact-Checkers Don't Get It Right

Editor & Publisher magazine's head honcho Greg Mitchell has the scoop on a whopper of a correction appearing in this Sunday's Times magazine.
What's discomfiting -- besides that the story, about a supposed vending machine that would allow crows to exchange coins for peanuts, had almost no factual basis -- was that it took the Times nearly four months to fess up to the faux pas.
The excuse: additional reporting, which led to this conclusion: "These details [read: in other words, what would have debunked the story] should have been discovered during the reporting and editing process. Had that happened, the article would not have been published."

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