I'm sorry if this was already posted - I didn't see it in the diaries today.
On Sept. 21 a dKos diarist posted this diary about his e-mail to the NYTimes criticizing this article, which claimed that Kerry said on May 15 that "Iraq... is critical to the war on terror." In fact, as the diarist noted, Kerry said it on December 15, the day after Hussein's capture, and was clearly referring to Hussein's capture. By taking it out of context, the Times reporters (one of whom was Wilgoren, surprise surprise!) implied that Kerry recently thought Iraq was something other than a colossal distraction from the war on Al Qaeda. The public editor, Daniel Okrent, wrote back to the diarist that his point was basically nonsense. (Sorry, had it confused with this diary where Okrent blew off the letter-writer's main criticism.)
Today, the Times printed the following correction:
A front-page article on Sept. 21 about Senator John Kerry's denunciation of President Bush's policies on Iraq misstated the date that Mr. Kerry told the Fox News Channel that "Iraq may not be the war on terror itself, but it is critical to the outcome of the war on terror." It was on Dec. 15, 2003 - not May 15, 2004. (Mr. Kerry made the comment the day after Saddam Hussein was captured, but he did not specifically link Mr. Hussein to the war on terror, as his critics have suggested.)
Sound familiar?
Now, why did it take the Times
one month to fix an item that was caught on dKos the
same day?
I suggest we all write the Times to congratulate them on their month-long commitment to journalistic accuracy. (Recommend me if you agree.)