Yesterday saw the execution of a remarkable ruse: hoaxsters printed 1.2 million copies of a fake edition of the New York Times and passed them out in U.S. cities. They also put up a fake website, and issued a press release.
The edition carried the headline “Iraq War Ends,” and featured a variety of articles. It also included some invented corrections. The corrections focus on media accountability, the death toll in Iraq, editorial independence, the environment, and media concentration. These fake corrections carry a serious message. You can read them all on this page, but here are a few samples:
“Special Interests”
The Times has in the past used the term “special interests” to describe unions, environmentalists and even whole ethnic groups, and has used the word “pandering” when politicians take these groups’ concerns into account. We have typically not, however, used “pandering” to refer to politicians catering to the interests of corporations. The Times regrets that our use of such language may have given the impression that the interests of corporations are more important than those of citizens.Portraits of Grief
From September 14 to December 31, 2001, the New York Times published “Portraits of Grief,” daily obituaries of the victims of the September 11 attacks. We are proud of this coverage, which won several awards. Tomorrow, the Times begins part two of the series with obituaries of the civilians and soldiers killed between 2001 and today in Afghanistan and Iraq. Two soldiers, and one hundred civilians, will be very briefly memorialized each day, adding a full fold-out page to each edition. The series will continue for thirty years. (Estimates of the number of Iraqis who have died violent deaths since the 2003 invasion vary from 100,000 to well over one million. The Times apologizes for consistently using only the low end of this spectrum of estimates.)Media Monopoly
The Times apologizes for under-reporting the effects and dangers of media consolidation, perhaps due to our own efforts at media consolidation: The Times owns almost two dozen regional newspapers, a number of television and radio stations, and partial shares in the Red Sox and the Discovery Channel. We now recognize this conflict of interest. No newspaper should concern itself with maximizing profits, and the paper of record should be held to an even higher standard than the rest of the publishing industry. Over the next two months, The Times will voluntarily trust-bust itself, thus contributing to the independence of American journalism.
I have to admit I was somewhat disappointed by the execution of these. They could have done a better job of mimicking the Times corrections style. Where’s the reference to specific (made up) articles? The final “It was blank, not blank” sentence? And why not throw in an Editors’ Note for good measure?
