Guardian UK: New York Times arrow misfires, again

[marmar]

New York Times arrow misfires, again
The newspaper's butchery of a legitimate story has allowed Richard Blumenthal to act like the victim of a media witch hunt

Dan Kennedy
guardian.co.uk, Monday 24 May 2010 22.30 BST


Sometimes it's the little things that tell the larger story. So it is with the New York Times's deeply flawed reporting on Democratic Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal.

The Times published a story last week that Blumenthal, Connecticut's attorney general, had lied about serving in Vietnam. In fact, Blumenthal was a member of the Marine Corps Reserve who had obtained several deferments, who served stateside and who usually – but not always – made those circumstances clear.

For me, though, the clincher was a weird but telling little detail. According to the initial report, by Timesman Ray Hernandez, Blumenthal's puffery extended to claiming he'd been captain of the Harvard University swim team when he'd never even been a member. If he could lie about such a small matter, then clearly there was something wrong with the guy. Hernandez wrote:

"In two largely favorable profiles, Slate article and a magazine article in The Hartford Courant in 2004 with which he cooperated, Mr Blumenthal is described prominently as having served as captain of the swim team at Harvard. Records at the college show that he was never on the team."

But wait. Within a couple of days, the Hartford Courant posted evidence that strongly suggested Blumenthal actually was on the team. And there are pictures. So by the weekend, when Blumenthal received the endorsement of Connecticut Democrats, three major problems had arisen in the Times's reporting: ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/may/24/new-york-times-richard-blumenthal

[Cha]

1. Wow, I hadn't read the story about

"the swim team". NYT needs to get their stories straight.

[PM Martin]

2. The NY Times also 'misfired' and played a role in

getting you into Iraq.