World

NYT publishes correction 48 years later

by Sanjay Jha | August 13, 2008 at 09:05 pm

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The New York Times has built its reputation over the year for its fair and accurate coverage. It is their consistent effort of reporting fair that has won them most respected tag. As a true newspaper they are always willing to correct themselves in case of a mistake. This latest example of correcting after 48 yrs clearly vindicate their approach to journalism.

It is not for nothing that the New York Times is known as America's most famous paper. Why? Because it did not think twice about issuing corrections 48 years later on two of its news items that appeared in 1960.

According to The Times, one related to a review of a Broadway production of West Side Story, and the other concerned a certain soldier going by the name of John McCain, now the expected Republican presidential nominee.

In the case of the Broadway play, the newspaper confessed to getting the surname of one of the cast members wrong. It said that on April 28, 1960, it had wrongly mentioned the name as George Johnson when it should have been George Liker

The West Side Story, a musical love story set among the gangs of Manhattan, first opened at Broadway's Winter Garden theatre in September 1957 and ran for 732 performances.

In the case of McCain, the paper had in the same year described him as a "Vietnam-era fighter pilot", when in fact he was shot down while at the controls of an A-4 Skyhawk - technically an attack aircraft rather than a fighter.