For the second time in less than a week, The New York Times today admitted to a serious error in a story. On March 22 it disclosed that a woman it profiled on March 8 is not, in fact, a victim of Hurricane Katrina, and was in fact arrested for fraud and grand larceny. Oops!
The original article, more than 1000 words in length, was written by Nicholas Confessore. Without admitting that he wrote the story, he wrote an “apology” on March 23:
The Times did not verify many aspects of Ms. Fenton’s claims, never interviewed her children, and did not confirm the identity of the man she described as her husband.
An article in The Metro Section on March 8 profiled Donna Fenton, identifying her as a 37-year-old victim of Hurricane Katrina who had fled Biloxi, Miss., and who was frustrated in efforts to get federal aid as she and her children remained as emergency residents of a hotel in Queens.
Yesterday [March 22], the New York police arrested Ms. Fenton, charging her with several counts of welfare fraud and grand larceny. Prosecutors in Brooklyn say she was not a Katrina victim, never lived in Biloxi and had improperly received thousands of dollars in government aid. Ms. Fenton has pleaded not guilty.
For its profile, The Times did not conduct adequate interviews or public record checks to verify Ms. Fenton’s account, including her claim that she had lived in Biloxi. Such checks would have uncovered a fraud conviction and raised serious questions about the truthfulness of her account.
Part of the overall editorial pattern at the New York Times (and most of the mainstream media):
- Find something, even if you have to make it up, that bemoans, discredits, or criticizes President Bush, the Bush Administration, Republicans, Conservatives, or Christians. Facts are irrelevant; strong opinion and bias are enough.
New York Times, Katrina, fraud, Nicholas Confessore, Donna Fenton, Biloxi
