Newspapers Explain 'N.Y. Times' Iraq Note to Readers

By: Joe Strupp Fallout from The New York Times' editors' note about problematic Iraq-related stories spread to newspapers nationwide Thursday as editors were forced to come clean to their own readers about Times stories they published.

The San Francisco Chronicle, for example, offered a lengthy, 18-inch editor's note of its own on Page A2 that explained specifics about each of the four stories it ran, reported when and on which page they ran in the Chronicle, and also when and on which page they ran in the Times. On Wednesday, the Times had placed its own note on Page A10.

"We are trying to be as transparent as possible," said Robert J. Rosenthal, the Chronicle's managing editor. "We wanted to make readers aware."

The Times' editors' note admitted errors in the paper's coverage of several issues related to the Iraq War. Since all of the stories cited in the editors' note were made available through The New York Times News Service, as many as 350 U.S. newspapers had access to the articles.

A check of several dozen newspapers found a handful that not only reported on the Times' note, but revealed to readers which of the troubling stories ran in their paper and when.

"It's a matter of credibility," said Jennie Buckner, editor of The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer, which published a Los Angeles Times story about the editor's note on Page 7A along with a separate story detailing the four Times stories that the Observer had run. "We are all judged by how we own up to our failings. We had to tell our readers our part in it."

The Chicago Tribune, which ran two of the stories called into question, added a note to readers at the end of its story on the Times' response. The Tribune called the Times' actions "an extraordinary mea culpa."

Other newspapers that ran similar detailed lists of the Times stories they published included The Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

"We take corrections and self-analysis very seriously," said Sharon Rosenhause, managing editor of the Sun-Sentinel, which ran its coverage on Page 17A. "It is first for our readers." She said the paper also added a note to each story in the archives explaining what occurred.

Some papers, such as The Seattle Times, only noted that they sometimes use New York Times News Service stories, but did not indicate if any of the criticized stories appeared in the paper.

"We haven't checked that," Scott Thien, national editor for the Indianapolis Star, said when asked if his paper ran any of the stories. "We felt that [The Washington Post] story we had [on Wednesday] covered us."