The New York Times published a self-critical note to its readers late Tuesday, in effect apologizing for the paper's sometimes erroneous reporting on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq both before the United States and coalition countries invaded in March 2003 and during the early days of the occupation.
The mea culpa first appeared on the paper's website, and is in today's editions. The unusual note, which includes a pledge to "continue aggressive reporting aimed at setting the record straight," follows months of criticism.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday May 27, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 4 inches; 163 words Type of Material: Correction
An article in Wednesday's Section A about the New York Times' critically reviewing its Iraq coverage included a passage, added by an editor, that closely mirrored one on the Washington Post wire service.
The Los Angeles Times story said: "Many news organizations reported on claims of weapons of mass destruction before the war, though the New York Times was more aggressive than most. The failure to find any such weapons has brought growing calls by some media critics, led by Slate columnist Jack Shafer, for the paper to own up to such errors."
The Washington Post story said: "While many news organizations reported on WMD claims before the war, few did so as aggressively as the Times. The failure to find such weapons has produced growing calls by critics, led by Slate columnist Jack Shafer, for the Times to own up to past errors."
The similarity was accidental and the result of adding material from several wire reports on a late-breaking news event.
Readers, other journalists and some antiwar politicians have argued that the paper's numerous stories suggesting that Saddam Hussein may have constructed a large weapons of mass destruction program helped bolster the Bush administration's argument for going to war. No such weapons have been found.
"Over the last year this newspaper has shone the bright light of hindsight on decisions that led the United States into Iraq," the note begins. " ... We have studied the allegations of official gullibility and hype. It is past time we turned the same light on ourselves."
The note, "From the Editors," says the paper reviewed hundreds of articles and turned up an "enormous amount of journalism that we are proud of. In most cases, what we reported was an accurate reflection of the state of our knowledge at the time.... And where ... articles included incomplete information or pointed in a wrong direction, they were later overtaken by more and stronger information. That is how news coverage normally unfolds.
"But we have found a number of instances of coverage that was not as rigorous as it should have been," the note continues. "In some cases information that was controversial then, and seems questionable now, was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. Looking back, we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged -- or failed to emerge."
Many of the problematic articles "shared a common feature," the note says. "They depended at least in part on information from a circle of Iraqi informants, defectors and exiles bent on 'regime change' in Iraq, people whose credibility has come under increasing public debate in recent weeks."
The best-known of those sources is Ahmad Chalabi, who the paper says had been a source since 1991. Chalabi was once a favorite of the Bush administration, which viewed him as a potential leader for Iraq. In recent weeks, however, the U.S. has cut off his funding and accused him of feeding U.S. and other intelligence agencies false information to shore up support for the invasion.
