Driving home this evening I heard a short piece on All Things Considered about how the New York Times ran a correction on a obituary that ran 13 years ago.
Here's the summary:
On Monday, The New York Times ran a correction on the obituary it published for the late William G. McLoughlin. McLoughlin died in December 1992, making the correction 13 years in coming. Robert Siegel talks with Martha Everatt, McLoughlin's daughter, and Charles Strum, the obituary editor of The New York Times.
That's great -- more power to the old gray lady for setting things right.
Now how about printing a correction for something that matters? Say, any of Judith Miller's numerous articles on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction? (Seriously, just pick a search result and read.)
Okay, I'll be fair and say that Judith Miller herself did not lie and personally claim that she saw WMDs in Iraq. She simply said that other people told her there were WMDs in Iraq and reported it as fact. (I.e., exactly like any reporter would.) But now that we know the truth, it is appropriate to ask the NYT to respond accordingly and attempt to figure out how they let their paper, and their good name, be so compromised by such bad reporting. (Oh, we didn't forget that one.)