-By Warner Todd Huston
On the ball. That’s what the experts at The New York Times are, alright. They are the arbiters of all that’s fit to print, remember? The ones that know all and see all, dontcha know? They are the ones with all sorts of advice on foreign policy, we must point out. So, it’s a bit hard to fathom how The New York Times printed a hoax letter, supposedly from Bertrand Delanoe, the mayor of Paris, France, taking the State of New York to task for turning to the ditzy Caroline Kennedy to fill Hillary’s Senate Seat.
That’s right, The New York Times got scammed by a fake letter. Worse, they didn’t even follow up to confirm the authenticity of the letter that arrived in their inbox via email. Someone at the Times just read the email then published the letter. And now they are apologizing for the negligence.
The Associated Press is reporting that the faux letter called Caroline’s Senate bid “appalling” and “not very democratic.”
“What title has Ms. Kennedy to pretend to Hillary Clinton’s seat?” the letter in Monday’s editions said. “We French can only see a dynastic move of the vanishing Kennedy clan in the very country of the Bill of Rights. It is both surprising and appalling.”
Once word got back to Paris, the Mayor’s staff asked for a retraction and apology.
For its part The New York Times says that they didn’t bother to verify that the letter actually came from the Mayor of Paris. They said that they had violated their own practices.
It sort of boggles the mind, though, that anyone would imagine that a Frenchman would be all up in arms against a Kennedy!
Anyway, I guess we will soon be seeing splashy stories gleaned by the emails in The New York Times email inbox about male enhancement, and no doubt a deep investigation of Mbeke M’Butto who is a secretary of a very rich African general that only needs you to send $1,000 so that he can send you $10,000. Now THAT is a deal!
Yes, it’s all the professionalism that’s fit to make print with The New York Times.
____________
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer, has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, Human Events Magazine, townhall.com, New Media Journal, Men’s News Daily and the New Media Alliance among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
Fair Use: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material available in my efforts to advance understanding of political, human rights, economic, democracy, and social justice issues, etc. I believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research, educational, or satirical purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site/blog for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.