Should The Times Have ‘Left It Out’ — and What, Exactly, Was ‘It’?

By

When in doubt, leave it out. So goes the old expression about editing a news story.

Of course, that wisdom always works best in retrospect. And retrospect requires actual facts, not misinformation.

Here’s what happened in the case of a brief blog post last week about the former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson’s marriage. The facts of the situation have been widely misreported and misunderstood, and my office has received hundreds of emails on the subject from angry readers who erroneously believe that The Times published Mr. Wilson’s address. (Some readers also wrongly believe that The Times published his phone number as well.)
Read more…

A Recipe for Wrath (Grapes Optional) in Minnesota

By

As Thanksgiving spreads go, this one was lavish.

Called “The United States of Thanksgiving,” the online interactive graphic and the printed version over most of the 16-page Food section took a state-by-state approach to the big American meal of the year. Each state had its dish: In New York, Double Apple Pie. In Mississippi, Ale-Braised Collard Greens with Smoked Ham Hock.

The effort was impressive, and engaging, and – in at least one case – bizarrely wrong.
Read more…

From the Makers of AnonyWatch™, Introducing … The Monocle Meter™

By

Ever since I wrote a column early this year about a Times story reporting a supposed monocle trend,  people have been sending me their candidates for other stories that deserve a similar shout-out. This goes beyond trends to any Times story whose premise may be dubious or whose qualities of self-parody — intentional or otherwise — induce a certain level of eye rolling.

It has become the silly version of my AnonyWatch effort, in which I’ve asked readers to send me their candidates for gratuitous anonymous quotes — and they do, they do.
Read more…

A Strong Editorial, as The Times Struggles With Chinese Visas and Business Concerns

By

Michael Forsythe, once a reporter at Bloomberg News and now at The Times – covering China for each — packed a lot into 140 characters Thursday morning when he tweeted:

He was referring to a Times editorial that took a tough stance on the Chinese government’s efforts to control the foreign press. It followed public statements earlier this week by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who appeared to be warning foreign news organizations that they ought to ease up on negative news coverage if they want to stay in the country.

The editorial said, in part: “The Times has no intention of altering its coverage to meet the demands of any government – be it that of China, the United States, or any other nation. Nor would any credible news organization.”
Read more…

‘Follow Me Around’ and the Long, Strange Trip to a Times Correction

By

Most corrections are simple. The Times gets something wrong – inevitable when it publishes well over 100,000 words a day – gets a complaint, and quickly publishes a correction. This may happen dozens of times in a typical week.

Others turn into something far more complicated before a correction is ever published, if indeed it ever is. Editors meet with other editors. Parts of the story are re-reported by Times researchers. The writer pushes back. Days go by. Weeks. Even, on rare occasions, months.

Such was the case with a correction to a Sunday magazine cover story about the former senator and former presidential candidate Gary Hart, an excerpt from a book by a former Timesman, Matt Bai, now at Yahoo, titled “All the Truth is Out: The Week Politics Went Tabloid.” The story appeared in print on Sept. 21, after going online the previous week. The correction appeared Monday online (it can be found at the bottom of the story) and will appear in print, in the magazine, later this month, or about two months after the article was published.

Behind it is a tale worth telling. (Michael Calderone, the media reporter at the Huffington Post who doesn’t miss much, wrote a good account of this on Tuesday.)
Read more…

The Upshot and the Midterms: Big Test, Good Grade and Lessons Learned

By

Two years ago – during the coverage of the 2012 presidential race – the relationship between Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight (then based at The Times) and the paper’s political team seemed tense. And an observant reader could sometimes pick that up in the journalism.

The data-based Five Thirty Eight had one strong narrative based on Mr. Silver’s algorithm: President Obama very likely would win re-election handily. Political reporters were presenting the race, based on traditional reporting and analysis, as either side’s to win. And Mr. Silver’s efforts were generally not integrated into the whole of The Times’s coverage.

This year’s midterm elections were a different story. The replacement for Five Thirty Eight (Mr. Silver left The Times for ESPN last year) is The Upshot, headed by a Times insider, David Leonhardt, who had been the Washington bureau chief. And Times coverage leading up to the election not only integrated what The Upshot was predicting but reflected what it was predicting: a big Republican win in the Senate.
Read more…

Shaky Times, Strong Journalism

By

Updated, 2:50 p.m.

Although the finances at The Times aren’t strictly within my brief as public editor, I take a keen interest in them. After all, the health of the company is bound to affect the journalism. (One clear indication of that: For cost-cutting reasons, 100 newsroom buyouts or layoffs are in progress this month and next.)

So the coverage and commentary that followed last week’s third-quarter financial statements are worth pulling together here. Here are some highlights, plus interpretation.
Read more…

Responding to Reader Concerns on Ebola Coverage

By

In terms of capturing the public’s attention, there may be no bigger story right now than the spread of the Ebola virus. The Times has given the story a great deal of attention with news stories, analysis, editorials, Op-Ed pieces and more. And most of it, from my reading, has been very good.

However, I have heard from readers with legitimate concerns or complaints about some important specifics. Here are three examples:
Read more…

Off to Denmark – and Off the Grid for a Few Days

By

I won’t be posting here this week as I am heading for Copenhagen to give a talk about media ethics in the digital age.

Denmark, it seems, has had something of a rough year on that topic, as Columbia Journalism Review wrote in May:

On April 28, Danish newspaper BT broke the news that the gossip magazine Se og Hør (“See and Hear”) purportedly paid a contractor for the banking services company Nets to monitor the credit card activity of members of the royal family and other celebrities.

A little over a week later, the case has become the biggest media scandal in Danish history, and new revelations emerge each day. It has profoundly shocked a country far more accustomed to being hailed as a model of transparency than for News of the World-type shenanigans. And although many here within the media believe Se og Hør’s to be isolated in its tactics, a few critics have openly wondered whether something isn’t rotten in Denmark’s media culture as a whole.

The foundation associated with a large Danish media group, Berlingske, is putting on a conference to consider the challenges. Nick Davies, the British journalist who is the author of “Hack Attack: The Inside Story of How the Truth Caught Up With Rupert Murdoch,” which took up the British phone-hacking scandal, is also scheduled to speak.

I’ll be back soon to pick up on the many topics that readers have brought to my attention in recent days. Thanks to those who responded in comments, emails and on Twitter to my second-annual report to readers in Sunday’s paper. I very much appreciate the kind words — and have taken note of your constructive criticism as well.

For James Risen, a Struggle That Never Ends

By

Readers of this blog may know that I’m particularly interested in the situation involving James Risen, a Times investigative reporter who is at risk of going to jail to protect a confidential source from his 2006 book, “State of War.”

What’s happened to Mr. Risen is one of the two most telling journalism episodes of the past decade or so, the other being the Edward Snowden leak.  They share common themes, of course: the growth of post-9/11 government surveillance in America and the role of the National Security Agency in spying on American citizens, among others. (I interviewed Mr. Risen at his home in suburban Maryland last year about his and fellow Times reporter, Eric Lichtblau’s, extraordinary warrantless-wiretapping story that was delayed for 13 months, finally appearing in 2005; it won a Pulitzer Prize.)

There have been some developments in the Risen story — and some fascinating coverage. I’ll summarize them here and comment only to say that I admire Mr. Risen’s toughness and a great deal of his work.
Read more…

Should David Brooks Disclose His Son’s Israeli Military Service?

By

Columnists play by different rules than news reporters. By definition, they express their opinions. Columnists also, appropriately, get a lot of leeway in what they write and how they write it.

Having acknowledged that, I nevertheless understand the complaints of those readers who are bothered by something they have recently learned about David Brooks: his son is a member of the Israel Defense Forces. In a recent Hebrew-language interview in Haaretz magazine, Mr. Brooks was asked about his worries as a father. The article noted that the columnist’s “connection to Israel was always strong.” It continued:

“He has visited Israel almost every year since 1991, and over the past months the connection has grown even stronger, after his oldest son, aged 23, decided to join the Israel Defense Forces as a ‘lone soldier.’ ” (The reference is to a soldier whose family is not living in Israel.)

Mr. Brooks described the situation as “worrying.” He added: “But every Israeli parent understands this is what the circumstances require. Beyond that, I think children need to take risks after they leave university, and that they need to do something difficult that involves going beyond their personal limits. Serving in the I.D.F. embodies all of these elements. I couldn’t advise others to do it without acknowledging it’s true for my own family.’”
Read more…