07 July 2005

Why am I an editor if I can't make up quotes?

[source]

The Op-Ed page in some copies of Wednesday’s newspaper carried an incorrect version of the below article about military recruitment. The article also briefly appeared on NYTimes.com before it was removed. The writer, an Army reserve officer, did not say, “Imagine my surprise the other day when I received orders to report to Fort Campbell, Ky., next Sunday,” nor did he characterize his recent call-up to active duty as the precursor to a “surprise tour of Iraq.” That language was added by an editor and was to have been removed before the article was published. Because of a production error, it was not. The Times regrets the error.

As noted by Mark in Mexico and Daily Pundit, one needs to think for just a minute about what kind of editorial process could fail in this way, i.e. editors flat out making up quotes and putting them in other people’s articles? Rather than trying to cut them back out, perhaps the Times should consider asking their editors to not insert fake quotes. That’s Maureen Dowd’s job.

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