Paul Iredale catches the Gray Lady

Caught! The New York Times has publicly admitted embarrassing mistakes after Paul Iredale (photo), Reuters correspondent and sub-editor from 1973 to 2000, pointed out errors in remarks by the newspaper's executive editor Bill Keller on its behind the scenes video newscast.

The Times, nicknamed the Gray Lady because of its traditional format of printing many words and few pictures, introduced online video coverage of its morning news planning meeting in March to show how the paper is using technology to showcase its journalism.

But several stumbles in the past few weeks have demonstrated some of the risks for a print culture built on careful reporting, layers of editing and time for reflection as it moves onto platforms where speed is everything and attitude sometimes trumps values like accuracy and restraint, wrote Clark Hoyt, the paper’s public editor, under the headline The Danger of Always Being On.

"Paul Iredale, a veteran Reuters reporter, said he watched 'TimesCast' on its second day and was unhappy to see Keller say that Britain had expelled 'the head of Mossad,' the Israeli intelligence service, 'in retribution for the Israelis’ having assassinated a Hamas militant in Dubai.' The British had not accused Israel of the assassination. Nor had The Times established that the person sent home was the Mossad station chief.

“'Agh,' wrote Keller when I sent him Iredale’s message. 'This is why I went into print rather than TV.' Because 'TimesCast' is taped and edited, Keller said he should have said, 'cut,' and given a more careful summary of the story then in progress. Ann Derry, the editor in charge of the paper’s video operations, said, 'Several pairs of eyes view every segment - and the entire show - before it goes up.' She said they all missed Keller’s errors and will ‘button up’ our procedures going forward.”

Keller told Hoyt: “We’re always on, which increases the danger that things will not get checked as they should.” He said news organisations have always had times when they have had to work quickly on deadline, and they know there is more danger of mistakes on those occasions. “The difference now is the deadline is always.”

Hoyt concluded: “The technology may be new, the speed faster, the culture different, but in journalism, the old rules still apply: be skeptical, check it out.”

The New York Times

TimesCast VIDEO ■