On December 31, we wrote about an issue raised by the Public Editor of the New York Times, Byron Calame, under the title "No Correction Necessary." A cover story in the Times' Sunday magazine last April purported to expose the horrors of life in El Salvador, where abortion is illegal. A centerpiece of the story was the tale of Carmen Climaco, who, according to the Times, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for having an abortion.

The issue that Calame brought to light was that the author of the article had failed to obtain court documents relating to the criminal prosecution that showed that Ms. Climaco was convicted not of abortion--that was her defense--but of murdering her baby after it was born. At the time of Calame's Public Editor article, the newspaper's management had decided that no correction was necessary, based in part, as the magazine's editor wrote with unintended irony, on the claim that "El Salvador’s judicial system is terribly politicized.”

But Calame's expose evidently had an impact on the terribly politicized management of the New York Times: the long deferred correction appeared today as an Editors' Note in the paper's Corrections section. The Note acknowledges that:

The Times should have obtained the text of the ruling of the three-judge panel before the article was published, but did not vigorously pursue the document until details of the ruling were brought to the attention of editors in late November.

The Note concludes with the observation that "The Times is continuing to investigate the case," in hopes, perhaps, of helping Ms. Climaco to vindicate her defense.

It has been rumored that the Times is considering abolishing the position of Public Editor when Mr. Calame finishes his current term. This episode suggests what an unfortunate decision that would be.

Posted by John at 01:25 PM  |    |