Is this the first example of how poorly the post-buyout NYT is going to function? If so, we've got big troubles ahead.On Page A36 of this morning's NYT, in the Metro Section's "City Room" column, a two-paragraph summary reports the following:
The state attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, obtained a court injunction on Tuesday ordering the United Homeless Organization to immediately remove its sidewalk donation tables pending the outcome of a civil lawsuit.
It goes on for another paragraph or so, summarizing the suit.
Turn the page to A38, and guess what? There it is again, the same story! This time it gets a headline -- "Group's Tables Ordered Off Sidewalks" -- and the byline of City Room powerhouse Sewell Chan. There's also a snappier lede and a little more detail to the story, which has morphed into 8 full paragraphs. It begins:
The state’s attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, obtained a court injunction on Tuesday ordering the United Homeless Organization to remove its sidewalk donation tables pending the outcome of a lawsuit Mr. Cuomo’s office has filed against the group, which he has called a sham.
We know the NYT lost some valuable metro editors to the buyouts last week -- Nicole Collins was one smart young talent who got away, along with some respected copy desk veterans. It seems logical to assume one of them likely would have caught the mistake.
We wonder how many more problems -- worse than a mere repetition of stories -- will happen as a result of the new, short-staffed NYT. As executive editor Bill Keller correctly observed last November: "What you can do with less, is less."
1 comment:
Jezebel.com does this frequently. Often a story gets an entire post, and it also gets a sentence in the "leftovers" roundup. I attribute it to the fact that there's just so goddamm much to read, everybody ends up with their eyes spinning. So such mistakes slip through.
Post a Comment