Weld Done: Candidate Caught Editing Newspaper Stories on Site

By: The GOP's New York gubernatorial candidate, William Weld, made changes to his campaign Web site after being criticized because newspaper articles posted there were altered to remove criticism of him, and any mention of a criminal investigation at a technical college he once led.

The Web site still contained at least two edited articles in its "News" section Saturday, but each was labeled to indicate it was an "excerpted" version.

The campaign for the former Massachusetts governor added the notes after the alterations, which had the effect of making balanced articles appear more favorable to him, were reported by The New York Times.

"It was not intended to mislead people," Weld spokesman Dominick Ianno said Saturday. "If there was any misunderstanding, we corrected it."

One of the changed articles was a Jan. 21 profile of Weld by Times writer Patrick Healy, whose original version said Weld's campaign appeared to be "on life support."

"By his own admission, Mr. Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, has been wounded by a federal investigation of a Kentucky college he once ran," Healy wrote, adding that "while some New York Republican leaders endorsed him early on, others are now iffy or worse. Alfonse M. D'Amato, the former senator, despises Mr. Weld, and he is saying so to anyone who will listen."

The edited version on Weld's site cut those sentences and jumped to the fourth paragraph, beginning: "Mr. Weld is a singular sort a man who has never had a bad day, as Massachusetts politicians said about him."

A second altered article was a Jan. 25 story by Yancey Roy of the Gannett News Service. The version posted by the campaign eliminated sections saying Weld's campaign was in a "mini-slump" and "dogged by an investigation of a shuttered private Kentucky college he once ran."

Weld until recently headed the now-closed Decker College trade school in Louisville, which has been under investigation for possible federal violations, including student loan and wire fraud. Weld denies knowing there were any problems at the school and says he invested more than $500,000 in it.