NYT: So you're NOT the mayor of Paris? Ooooh... crap.

Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!! · Dec 23, 2008

Haven't seen this posted yet ...

Oops.

Memo the NYT: Always check out letters to the editor sent via email from reputed foreign dignitaries

NY Times published fake letter from Paris mayor
NEW YORK (AP) - The New York Times admitted Monday it published a fake letter purportedly from the mayor of Paris criticizing Caroline Kennedy's Senate bid as "appalling" and "not very democratic."
"What title has Ms. Kennedy to pretend to Hillary Clinton's seat?" the letter in Monday's editions said. "We French can only see a dynastic move of the vanishing Kennedy clan in the very country of the Bill of Rights. It is both surprising and appalling."
In an editor's note posted Monday on its Web site, the Times said the letter signed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe should not have been published because it violated the paper's standards and procedures.
"We have already expressed our regrets to Mr. Delanoe's office and we are now doing the same to you, our readers," the Times said.
News of the hoax was first reported by France-Amerique, which published a story on its Web site Monday. Editor-in-chief Jean-Cosme Delaloye said an employee of the French language monthly, which is based in New York City, read it Monday morning and was skeptical.
"When we read the letter it just sounded very surprising, the choice of words sounded very surprising," he told The Associated Press. "When we called Paris to verify the information ... they were very surprised."
Virginie Christnacht, head of Delanoe's press office in Paris, told the AP the letter was a fake.
"We have asked The New York Times for a denial and an apology," she said. "Clearly, this was never sent by Bertrand Delanoe."
The Times blamed the mistake on a failure to verify the authenticity of a letter that arrived by e-mail.
"In this case, our staff sent an edited version of the letter to the sender of the e-mail and did not hear back," the paper said. "At that point, we should have contacted Mr. Delanoe's office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us. We did not do that. Without that verification, the letter should never have been printed."
The Times said it was reviewing its procedures to avoid such an incident in the future.
Asked to comment, Times spokeswoman Catherine J. Mathis referred the AP to the paper's Web site.
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Baron Scicluna · Dec 23, 2008

Newspapers should start getting used to this. When you cut jobs, corners end up being cut as well.

Armchair_QB · Dec 23, 2008

Even cutting jobs to the bone doesn't excuse this. If they don't respond to the edits, you don't publish the letter. How tough is that to understand?

TheSportsPredictor · Dec 23, 2008

More apologizing with less integrity.

Armchair_QB · Dec 23, 2008

apologize smarter, not harder.

Batman · Dec 23, 2008

If only they could outsource the confirmations to India, this would've never happened.

Fenian_Bastard · Dec 23, 2008

D'oh!

bigpern23 · Dec 23, 2008

Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!! said:

"In this case, our staff sent an edited version of the letter to the sender of the e-mail and did not hear back," the paper said. "At that point, we should have contacted Mr. Delanoe's office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us. We did not do that. Without that verification, the letter should never have been printed."
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My question is this ... when they sent the edited version of the letter back to the original sender, how would that have verified his identity? If I send a fake racist email from George.W.Bush@gmail.com and they send it back to me and I approve of their edits, does that mean it would get in? I mean, it's not as if it would be difficult to verify if the mayor of goddamn Paris sent you a letter with a couple of quick phone calls.

Simon_Cowbell · Dec 23, 2008

bigpern23 said:

Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!! said:

"In this case, our staff sent an edited version of the letter to the sender of the e-mail and did not hear back," the paper said. "At that point, we should have contacted Mr. Delanoe's office to verify that he had, in fact, written to us. We did not do that. Without that verification, the letter should never have been printed."
Click to expand...

My question is this ... when they sent the edited version of the letter back to the original sender, how would that have verified his identity? If I send a fake racist email from George.W.Bush@gmail.com and they send it back to me and I approve of their edits, does that mean it would get in? I mean, it's not as if it would be difficult to verify if the mayor of goddamn Paris sent you a letter with a couple of quick phone calls.
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How can ANY e-mail be confirmed?

Evil ... Thy name is Orville Redenbacher!! · Dec 23, 2008

We have an editorial page editor. Part of his job is to call and verify all letters to the editor.
Last week, some yahoo wrote a letter calling for the extermination of feral cats, signed it Mike White or something.
Our editor calls the phone number. Dude Answers.
Edit.: Is Mike White there?
Dude: Who?
Edit.: Mike White?
Due: Um... .. Oh, yeah, hold one.
Pause ...
(Same Dude): Yeah, hello this is Mike White.

Editor said the guy didn't even try to disguise his voice. He got off the phone with the guy Googled his address and found his real name. We checked our archives and sure enough the guy - under his real name - had previously written letters to us - though none calling for the extermination of feral cats.

Long story short; we didn't run the letter.

JayFarrar · Dec 23, 2008

Letters policy
• Please include daytime phone number for confirmation.

Wow, that was hard. So a paper with the resources of the NY Times. The same paper that has a Paris newsroom. Or at least I think that's where the IHT works out of and they can't confirm a letter from the Mayor of Paris?
Dumb and dumber.

Simon_Cowbell · Dec 23, 2008

JayFarrar said:

Letters policy
• Please include daytime phone number for confirmation.

Wow, that was hard. So a paper with the resources of the NY Times. The same paper that has a Paris newsroom. Or at least I think that's where the IHT works out of and they can't confirm a letter from the Mayor of Paris?
Dumb and dumber.
Click to expand...

That can be fictitiously given, too.

You cannot confirm any non-handwritten correspondence with 100 percent certainty.

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NYT: So you're NOT the mayor of Paris? Ooooh... crap.

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