NYT critiques its Iraq coverage
International > Middle East > From the Editors: The Times and Iraq” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/26/international/middleeast/26FTE_NOTE.html”>The Times and Iraq (registration required)
Amazing! The New York Times, paper of record, has done the unthinkable. They’ve gone back and reviewed their entire coverage of Iraq and found some disturbing evidence:
“But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been. In some cases, information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged.”
What, you expected them to flaggelate themselves? This is evidence that the wheels are starting to fall off of the Bush Administration’s little red wagon (he says with much hope!). Journalists all over the political spectrum are starting to ask the hard questions of the Administration — anyone remember the April 13 press conference where Bush stumbled when asked if he had made any mistakes after 9/11?
Read more criticism from the public editor’s column “Weapons of Mass Destruction? Or Mass Distraction?”
A list of NYT stories can be found at http://www.nytimes.com/critique.