Text 18492, 53 rader
Skriven 2006-03-23 22:01:00 av Jeff Binkley (1:226/600)
Ärende: NY Times
================
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id
=1002235060

Another Bad Slip for 'NY Times': Katrina Victim Unmasked

By E&P Staff

Published: March 23, 2006 10:10 AM ET

NEW YORK For the second time in less than a week, The New York Times today
admitted to a serious error in a story. On Saturday it said it had
misidentified a man featured in the iconic "hooded inmate" photograph from Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq. Today it discloses that a woman it profiled on March 8
is not, in fact, a victim of Hurricane Katrina--and was arrested for fraud and
grand larceny yesterday.

As it did in the Abu Ghraib mistake, the Times ran an editors' note on page 2
of its front section, along with a lengthy news article (this time on the front
page of Section B). Again mirroring the Abu Ghraib episode, the newspaper
revealed a surprising and inexplicable lapse in fact-checking on the part of a
reporter and/or editor.

The original article, more than 1000 words in length, was written by Nicholas
Confessore. He also wrote the news article about the error today. Without
saying that he wrote the first story, he wrote today: "The Times did not verify
many aspects of Ms. Fenton's claims, never interviewed her children, and did
not confirm the identity of the man she described as her husband."

The editors' note states:

"An article in The Metro Section on March 8 profiled Donna Fenton, identifying
her as a 37-year-old victim of Hurricane Katrina who had fled Biloxi, Miss.,
and who was frustrated in efforts to get federal aid as she and her children
remained as emergency residents of a hotel in Queens.

"Yesterday, the New York police arrested Ms. Fenton, charging her with several
counts of welfare fraud and grand larceny. Prosecutors in Brooklyn say she was
not a Katrina victim, never lived in Biloxi and had improperly received
thousands of dollars in government aid. Ms. Fenton has pleaded not guilty.

"For its profile, The Times did not conduct adequate interviews or public
record checks to verify Ms. Fenton's account, including her claim that she had
lived in Biloxi. Such checks would have uncovered a fraud conviction and raised
serious questions about the truthfulness of her account."

Last Saturday, the Times editors' note disclosed that Ali Shalal Qaissi,
pictured on the front page "as the hooded man forced to stand on a box,
attached to wires, in a photograph from the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal of
2003 and 2004," was not that man. "The Times did not adequately research Mr.
Qaissi's insistence that he was the man in the photograph," it related.

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