The Paper of Record

by Kieran Healy on May 26, 2004

The _New York Times_ “hangs Judith Miller out to dry”:http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/international/middleeast/26FTE_NOTE.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc though it doesn’t mention her by name, preferring to spread the blame for its “credulous reporting”:http://slate.msn.com/id/2101124/ on Iraq around to other reporters and editors, whom it doesn’t name either. At least they come out and say, in an official capacity, that they were spun like a top by Chalabi and his buddies, and that if they’d been less excitable then they might not look so bad now.

{ 8 comments }

1

Doctor Memory 05.26.04 at 3:18 pm

And yet Miller still has a job. Pathetic.

2

Rich 05.26.04 at 3:22 pm

I suppose we should all write nice letters to the Times for their mea culpa. I guess I’ll read their confession tonight and compose a nice paper letter for them (paper is regarded a bit more seriously than an email as it takes a bit more effort), but I’m just a bit ticked off that it took them this long to realize they goofed big time.

3

drapeto 05.26.04 at 3:55 pm

how do they manage to sound completely self-satisfied even in apologia for dishonest war-mongering? and all this and a bag of chips/david brooks/ because the times wanted to atone for being a liberal newspaper. i haven’t the words for my disgust.

4

C.J.Colucci 05.26.04 at 4:17 pm

Reminds me of Dr. Johnson’s dancing dog or preaching woman: the point isn’t that it’s lame; it’s that they do it at all.

5

Tom Strong 05.26.04 at 5:20 pm

So who at the NYT has been fired?

6

Dan 05.26.04 at 5:46 pm

So here’s the record on their corrections list:

Erroneous articles are listed at http://www.nytimes.com/critique
By PATRICK E. TYLER with JOHN TAGLIABUE
By CHRIS HEDGES
By JUDITH MILLER
By JUDITH MILLER
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JUDITH MILLER
By JUDITH MILLER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and JAMES RISEN
By JUDITH MILLER
By JUDITH MILLER
By JUDITH MILLER
By JUDITH MILLER
By JUDITH MILLER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
By JUDITH MILLER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
By DOUGLAS JEHL

Corrections are listed
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
By JAMES RISEN
This article was reported and written by James Risen, David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker.
By DOUGLAS JEHL
By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID E. SANGER
By DOUGLAS JEHL
By DOUGLAS JEHL
By DOUGLAS JEHL
By JAMES RISEN
By JAMES RISEN
By JAMES RISEN and DAVID JOHNSTON

Pretty clear, really.

7

fyreflye 05.26.04 at 8:13 pm

I understand it was posted on page A10. No point in alerting any subway readers.
.

8

Michael 05.27.04 at 5:19 pm

I don’t think they hung Miller out to dry at all. On the contrary, refusing to name her is sort of an act of corporate omerta. The chief point, in fact, is that the mea culpa doesn’t admit to any real guilt, and refusing to talk directly about Miller is the paper’s way of saying it won’t allow consideration of the degree to which the Times allowed its news coverage to be systematically distorted toward a particular policy outcome: namely, aggressive and unjustified war against Iraq, for which the Times bears a considerable—and, Editor’s Note aside, still unaccounted-for—share of the blame.

Reading A1, they NY Times front page project

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