The New York Times issued a mea culpa on questionable reporting from Iraq — specifically, articles from over a year ago that played up ‘Saddam had WMD’ sources. The Times editorial admits the paper “was not as rigorous as it should have been” and that “we wish we had been more aggressive in re-examining the claims as new evidence emerged — or failed to emerge.”
[See commentary on this from WashPost.]
We certainly hope the Times will apply the same standards to its coverage of the Israel/Palestinian conflict — specifically, to Palestinian sources who regularly take foreign correspondents to the cleaners. The Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief James Bennet should have some input on this one.