The New York Times, as a friend of mine said today, does not have an ombudsman. They have a “Public Editor.” This is a guy who looks after (I guess) everyone who doesn’t have a cadre of public relations gurus to protect them from picayune errors in newspaper coverage.
Not so long ago, when a news outlet got something wrong, they could make a retraction at a convenient time – a later broadcast or published edition. In the 1990′s, the advent of online archives saw appended corrections tacked onto content, if needed.
Now, as Clark Hoyt of the Times notes, an effort to increase search engine visibility of archives from the newspaper has had some unfortunate and unintended consequences for people who have been misrepresented in past reporting. For example, consider:
…the case of Allen Kraus, a former deputy commissioner in the New York City Human Resources Administration. He once led a welfare office praised for its efforts to uncover fraud. Things seemed fine until he got a new boss with whom he tangled over budget and staffing. By mutual agreement, he resigned.
Six weeks later, an investigation his office initiated led to multiple arrests in a fraud and bribery scheme. His boss announced his resignation in a press release about the arrests. Kraus was furious. Hours later, the boss issued a second press release that said “there is no evidence of criminal culpability” on Kraus’s part but that she was concerned about “weaknesses” in his department.
The New York Times reported the next morning that he resigned under pressure as a result of the investigation. There was no mention of Kraus’s side of the story. The next day, after he said he contacted The Times, it published a much shorter article quoting his version of events.
Yet the initial story from the Times is, as of this writing, a top result if one googles “Allen Kraus.” Which is bad for him, because potential clients may get a very nasty impression of the guy if they go looking for him.
I’m not sure how the Times will deal with this. I would say (and this is not unique advice) that it’s an incredibly fierce reminder of the need to control and manage one’s online identity. Have you googled yourself today?
