Accidental Link Love From The NY Times

from the fact-checkers-are-so-last-millennium dept

Mon, Apr 17th 2006 3:07am — Mike Masnick

There's been some discussion recently over whether or not the NY Times ever links to bloggers. The concern seemed a bit overblown, as we've seen plenty of blog links from the NYT on occasion -- including one to us every once in a while. However, we were a bit surprised this weekend to find a very prominent link to Techdirt in a NY Times article entitled: Capitalism on the Cob -- an article about the business potential of corn. Specifically, the article focuses on a book by Michael Pollan, who we're sure must be a very interesting guy. The NY Times talks about Pollan's views, making sure to note certain statements that Pollan made in an interview with us here at Techdirt... which, amazingly enough, is news to all of us at Techdirt, who are almost entirely unfamiliar with Mr. Pollan or his views on corn. Clearly, it's a mistake, and mistakes do happen. It doesn't take sophisticated research skills to work out that the actual interview takes place at a site called Truthdig.com. Not that a link from the NY Times actually drives much traffic (seriously), but I figured we might as well post this for those of you hitting the page, looking for an interview with some guy we're unfamiliar with. In the meantime, we know that newspaper fact checkers have gone out of style these days, but it seems like the least a news organization like the NY Times could do is check to make sure the blogs they do link to actually have the stories they're supposed to have. Update: Well, it only took them two days, and this particular story for them to fix the link... and to change the URL of the original article so our link no longer works. No "correction" notice on the page, either, which you would expect.

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9 Comments

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ConceptJunkie (profile), 17 Apr 2006 @ 5:17am

This sums it all up...
"In the meantime, we know that newspaper fact checkers have gone out of style these days..."

No kidding. It seems that a lot of MSM outlets have stopped even pretending they are about anything but a political agenda.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2006 @ 5:21am

If they did screw up again, its that evil George Bush's fault.
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Logicbomb, 17 Apr 2006 @ 6:00am

Everyone in the newspaper industry knows
facts dont sell papers
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Apr 2006 @ 6:38am

Yeah, even Serbia was Bush's fault..

Err wait.. nm, he wasn't in office during that little round of civilian bombing, lol - my bad...
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tora1188, 17 Apr 2006 @ 7:39am

NYT? Truth?
Since when was the NYT (or any Print/TV news media source, including FOX) have ANY interest in realying true or factual information? I know im kind of blowing this out of proportion, but if a news source like the NYT cant even get a simple external link straight, it leads me to wonder what other "mistakes" they have made in the past or going into the future...
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txjump, 17 Apr 2006 @ 8:56am

Re: NYT? Truth?
it leads me to wonder what other "mistakes" they have made in the past or going into the future...

please tell me you don't wonder too hard. ;)

half of the news reported is overstatement, understatement, extra fluff or they leave important details out.

i stopped watching the news all together. if i really want to know about something i read multiple articles to try to get the whole story. "news" is so sensationalized it's rediculous.

when people want to talk about some "news" story, i usually just tell them i don't have an opinion yet cause i don't know the whole story.
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autodidact, 17 Apr 2006 @ 11:07am

It's a Sad State When...
Weathermen have become more accurate and reliable than the "reporters."
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autodidact, 17 Apr 2006 @ 11:10am

One More thing...
Maybe reporters should start giving us a percentage chance for accuracy. ie. "There is a 60% chance that this article is true and accurate."
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dah, 17 Apr 2006 @ 4:16pm

Re: One More thing...
That's pretty funny . . . in a sad sort of way.
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