NYT edit board goes bloggo, makes major screamer

Setting a new standard for accuracy in the blogosphere, the New York Times editorial board makes a major error in their Oct. 31 blog post, "A Visit From: Eli Khoury, Lebanese Activist." On "The Board," the editorial staff of the newspaper of record declares: "Israel, which is pounded daily by Hezbollah rockets coming across its northern border with Lebanon..."

Their first commenter points out, after 24 hours with no comments, "Israel pounded daily by Hezbollah?!!! Please check your facts. There hasn't been a rocket fired by Hezbollah since the July/August 2006 war."

"The Board," according to The Board, "is written by The New York Times editorial board, a group of journalists with wide-ranging areas of expertise, whose primary responsibility is to write The Times's editorials."

As WW4 REPORT has often asked, why do so many contemporary journalists consider fact-checking to be optional?

See our last post on Lebanon.

"The Board" makes lameass correction

The Board's blog now says "Correction appended" and tacked this on:

Correction: November 2, 2007
Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas fought a war across the Lebanon border in July 2006. According to the latest report by United Nations peacekeepers, the Lebanese-Israeli border has been “generally quiet” for the past four months, although there have been a “significant” number of violations of Lebanon’s airspace by Israel.

No mention that there have been no rockets fired by Hezbollah in that time. How many Lebanese have been killed or maimed by Israeli cluster bomblets left over from the war? The Board might look into that one.

In WW4 REPORT's tracking stats, we find several hits from the following link:

http://theboard.dblogs.nytimes.com/wp-login.php?redirect_to=%2Fwp-admin%2F

The link is password protected. Possibly The Board's internal blog?

The Board corrects their correction

Now it reads:

Correction: November 2, 2007
The reference to “daily pounding” is in error.
Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas fought a war across the Lebanon border in July 2006. Since the end of that war, the border has been relatively quiet.