NYT abortion article causes MeFi uproar, is largely retracted

January 2, 2007 12:33 PM

This New York Times article generated voluminous ranting in the blue in this thread. Critical portions of the article have been revealed as being rather, uh, Rathergate-ish and have been retracted by the Times.
posted by jfuller to MetaFilter-Related at 12:33 PM (13 comments total)

Slight correction. The article setting out the deception was published by the Times but the paper is not retracting.
posted by jfuller at 12:38 PM on January 2, 2007

"...but the paper is not retracting."

Aborting, perhaps?
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 12:47 PM on January 2, 2007

Makes you wish it was a requirement that every major media company had a public editor or an ombudsman.

There's something wrong with the media when ESPN has an ombudsman and Fox News doesn't.
posted by dw at 12:47 PM on January 2, 2007

Actually, careful reading of the "retraction" suggests that it is not at all clear when Ms. Climaco's fetus was aborted — and that affects your interpretation as much as the journalists'.

If the El Salvadoran government has an agenda to persecute women who have abortions at any cost, then whether its courts rule the fetus was aborted at "36"-plus weeks or 18 is rather a moot point. The government will still call it murder.

The "retraction" seems to question the journalist's poor research and the lack of editorial oversight on this one point, not necessarily the conclusions reached in the larger piece, nor does it point to any conspiratorial "agenda" on the part of any party involved.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:52 PM on January 2, 2007

I don't personally have a problem with the larger conclusions reached in the article, but having a key factual error in its most sensationalist example does make it a lot easier for anti-choice people to discredit the whole thing, which doesn't do a whole lot for the cause.

This Feministing post suggests that maybe the problem was sending a white guy who doesn't speak Spanish to report on Salvadorean women.
posted by SoftRain at 1:22 PM on January 2, 2007

Wait....

You mean to tell me that if we have posts that are news articles, and people argue them as if they are absolute truth, then the possibility exists that the news may turn out to not be correct, thus rendering all the kvetching baseless?

This is big. It seriously suggests the need of a paradigm shift on Metafilter.
posted by dios at 2:17 PM on January 2, 2007

This Feministing post suggests that maybe the problem was sending a white guy who doesn't speak Spanish to report on Salvadorean women.

I was gonna say that I found it funny that he thought it was because of Catholicism that women wouldn't talk to him.
posted by micayetoca at 2:23 PM on January 2, 2007

This Feministing post suggests that maybe the problem was sending a white guy who doesn't speak Spanish to report on Salvadorean women.

Hmm, isn't that racist and/or sexist?
posted by delmoi at 2:24 PM on January 2, 2007

Hmm, isn't that racist and/or sexist?

I'm not sure about that, but I can tell you it wasn't a good idea.
posted by micayetoca at 2:26 PM on January 2, 2007

This Feministing post suggests that maybe the problem was sending a white guy who doesn't speak Spanish to report on Salvadorean women.

Hah! Exactly.
posted by LarryC at 3:07 PM on January 2, 2007

I don't personally have a problem with the larger conclusions reached in the article, but having a key factual error in its most sensationalist example does make it a lot easier for anti-choice people to discredit the whole thing, which doesn't do a whole lot for the cause.

Yeah, that was my reaction too.

*slaps Times on wrist*
posted by languagehat at 3:23 PM on January 2, 2007

now if only they could find all those nucular weapons in Iraq the triumph would be perfect
posted by matteo at 8:31 AM on January 3, 2007

Makes you wish it was a requirement that every major media company had a public editor or an ombudsman.

Just having a person with that title doesn't ensure the critical coverage that you'd expect. The AJC in Atlanta has one but he/she basically acts as a cheerleader for the paper. Look at our new layout! We won some awards! See what a great job we did! (latest example)
posted by intermod at 1:39 PM on January 3, 2007