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July 31, 2005

How Op-Eds Are Edited (Or Not) in the New York Times

The editor of the New York Times Op-Ed page, David Shipley, has written an op-ed of his own, setting forth the guidelines presumably followed in editing a commentary article:

Here are the clear-cut things the editor will do:

• Correct grammatical and typographical errors.

• Make sure that the article conforms to The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage. Courtesy titles, for example, will miraculously appear if they weren't there before; expletives will be deleted; some words will be capitalized, others lowercased.

• See to it that the article fits our allotted space. With staff columnists, advertisements and illustrations, there's a limit to the number of words we can squeeze onto the page.

• Fact-check the article. While it is the author's responsibility to ensure that everything written for us is accurate, we still check facts - names, dates, places, quotations.

We also check assertions. If news articles - from The Times and other publications - are at odds with a point or an example in an essay, we need to resolve whatever discrepancy exists.

Strange. There was certainly no such oversight several months ago when the Times published an op-ed on October 4, 2004 by PLO legal advisor Michael Tarazi. The commentary, entitled “Two Peoples, One State,�? which called for the dissolution of the Jewish state was filled with false assertions and errors which the Times refused to correct. For a discussion of these errors and the attitude of the editors, read "The Worst of Times" by CAMERA Director Andrea Levin.

tarazi
The Times allowed Tarazi to fill his op-ed with false assertions

Perhaps Mr. Shipley has had a change of heart. Let us hope so.

Posted by RH at July 31, 2005 04:57 PM

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